Why is open source software important to an ordinary joe like me? Why should it be important to you? Think about it in the way I do.
Eventually, technology will become so pervasive that it will occupy every facet of our lives.
Take a peek at the Oxygen project of MIT.It envisions that someday computers will reside in our walls, roofs and roads. It envisions an environ that will assist us in everything we do, much like the omni-present computer in the scifi series Star Trek. Just imagine addressing the computer from anywhere within your house (or office space, for that matter) to ask it to turn on the airconditioning or adjust the lighting or keep the espresso machine churning. LOL (that last bit is a personal favorite). Computers will one day help us in a "human-centric way" unlike ever before.
When that day comes, guess what else will become just as pervasive? The software that runs it. Prety soon, the stuff that weaves the storyline of the movie series the Matrix will become real. We too will see the "code" that runs everything. To adapt, man will learn to use software like he does the spoken word today. He will use it to "talk to the walls" so to speak, to have the technology at his disposal do his bidding.
And where does open source come into all this? Open source seeks to make technology available to everyone who wants and needs it. It seeks to give back the power over software to those who really matter -- the people who use it. If this future I envision were to come true, wouldn't a monopoly of paid software be like paying for the oxygen we breathe?
Get to know more about free software. Free, as in freedom. Visit these websites today: The Open Source Initiative, The Free Software Foundation, Open Minds Philippines.
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