I have mixed feelings on Open Source Software. Open source software ( for those of you that don’t know is software that is free. Software that has the source code available for everyone to download , edit and redistribute freely. Thus is the opposite to software such as that released by Microsoft which is closed source or proprietary software. This cannot be edited or redistributed legally.

I like the principle of open source software, the premise of it works. The idea that you can download a software developed by a community, for the community to take, use, change and even redistribute freely. However, on projects where there are many people working on the same project but all have different features they want to implement, the interface can often become cluttered, unusable and confusing. Despite this some of the most common professional applications are open source. The apache web server which is used on most of the worlds web servers is open source, the engine powering the Safari web browser (Webkit) is open source, even the kernel of Mac OS X (Darwin) is open source. So it’s not all open source software that is ‘bad’.

I guess what I’m trying to say that I love the idea of open source software, the idea just needs a little refinement.

Just an update since I started writing this post. For anyone who wants to get into open source software in a big way, GET LINUX!. I’m completely serious here, On windows or OS X you can choose what you use, but with Linux, you gotta use open source. I’m not saying it’s bad thing, most of the software I’ve come across is very easy to understand and use, especially to an experienced computer user such as myself. The only thing about Linux is… how you supposed to install this damn stuff, I know the Add/Remove utility is easy to use but how one earth do you install from source? If any one has the answer to this then please let me know. Now off to the Konsole/Terminal/Shell/Whatever you want to call it…