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Free Software Under Debate: Free Software, the Final Opportunity for Technological Emancipa- Tion

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Free Software Under Debate: Free Software, the Final Opportunity for Technological Emancipa- Tion CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 05 ARTICLES FREE SOFTWARE UNDER DEBATE: FREE SOFTWARE, THE FINAL OPPORTUNITY FOR TECHNOLOGICAL EMANCIPA- TION Orestes Mas1, Leopold Palomo2, Rafael Carreras3, Eduard Fabra4 and Francesc Genové5 This article sets forth the various reasons why public administration should become involved in adopting and de- veloping free software. A review is made of the more important concepts concerning this type of software and clarification is given of the most frequent doubts and misconceptions. The article goes on to explain the general advantages of free software and specific advantages for it being adopted by public administration authorities, with special emphasis on teaching, research and citizen and society-oriented services. The basic guidelines to assure maximum guarantees for success in the process of migration to free software are also discussed. Table of contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Free software is a matter of freedom 1.2 Potential confusion about free software 2. The advantages of freedom 2.1 Better quality 2.2 Greater reliability and stability 2.3 Eliminating compulsory change 2.4 Lower cost 3. The role of public administration 3.1 Software used by public administration 1 Orestes Mas is a PhD telecommunications engineer, an associate professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and a member of Caliu (Catalan Linux Users). 2 Leopold Palomo is an industrial engineer, a research assistance engineer at UPC and a member of Caliu. 3 Rafael Carreras is a laboratory technician. He is currently employed at the government-run Laboratori General d’Assaigs i Investigacions. He is a mem- ber of Caliu. 4 Eduard Fabra is a computer programmer and the vice-president of Caliu. 5 Francesc Genové is a computer engineer and the president of Caliu. 36 FREE SOFTWARE UNDER DEBATE: FREE SOFTWARE, THE LAST OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TECHNOLOGICAL EMANCIPATION 3.2 Localisation and translation 3.3 e-Government and the use of open standards 3.4 Security 4. Free software in education 4.1 Language 4.2 Quality in education 4.3 Discouraging illegal copying 4.4 Saving 4.5 Immunity from viruses 4.6 Non-discrimination 5. Innovation and research 5.1 Knowledge distribution 5.2 Software patentability 6. Migration 7. Conclusions 1. Introduction the other hand, the prejudiced diffusion of biased data by sectors that are against free software and There has recently been a notable increase in the insist on stirring up fear, uncertainty and doubt6 in mention of free software in the media. What used people who have decision-making ability with re- to be a subject confined to highly technical cliques gard to information and communications in differ- is now reaching broad sectors of the population by ent sectors. way of radio, the press, TV and Internet itself, which are all but a reflection of the increasing im- The other side of the coin is of course when people pact that this type of software has on daily life. Un- lapse into the puerile demonising of certain propri- fortunately, journalism often treats the subject in an etary software companies and use passionate incomplete, erroneous or just plain tendentious and/or simplistic arguments that help very little in way. There are various motives for this: on the one putting across the benefits associated with free hand, there is a lack of knowledge about this phe- software that for the first time are now very close at nomenon even amongst information experts. On hand. It also does not help the diffusion of this new 6 FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt. 37 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 05 ARTICLES paradigm. At the present time, with wide sectors of majority of this information is also accessible via society still unaware of what free software really is, the Internet and is thus easily obtainable. Internet explanations need to be given in a way that the addresses (URL references) have been included as concepts are clearly put across, and the FUD and much as possible, in spite of the risk of these be- more obvious prejudices refuted with a serene and coming defunct in time. All links to on-line material rigorous line of argument that avoids a lapse into have been checked and, as of April 2004, are op- mere rejection or the outright dismissal of other erational. people’s points of view. 1. 1. Free software is a matter of freedom The intention of this article is thus not to dogmati- cally state that proprietary software is intrinsically Richard Stallman, the creator of the GNU pro- bad or that it should be prohibited but to uphold ject7 and the main instigator of the free software that free software be adopted simply because it is concept, defines the latter as software that si- superior in economic, social and technological multaneously provides four fundamental ‘free- terms, as is explained below. doms’8: 1. The freedom to use it for any purpose. 2. The freedom to study how it works and, if ne- Free software provides four fundamental cessary, to adapt it to one’s own needs. ‘freedoms’: to use it for any purpose; to 3. The freedom to redistribute copies of software. 4. The freedom to introduce improvements and study how it works and, if necessary, to make them public for the benefit of the entire adapt it to one’s own needs; to redistribute community. copies of software, and to introduce im- In order for these essential freedoms to make provements and make them public for the sense, the users of free software need access to a benefit of the entire community. programme’s source code9, otherwise it is impossi- ble for it to be modified and the way it works can only be studied by using highly complex inverse engineering techniques that are illegal in certain Before entering into the matter at hand, however, countries. one should bear in mind that reference is made throughout the article to different books, articles There are different licenses that can be associa- and papers in support of the different lines of argu- ted with software so that it can be distributed ment. With regard to an issue as topical as this, the freely. These include those of the Apache founda- 7 The GNU project was started by Richard Stallman in 1984 to develop an operating system like UNIX but with free software (The recursive acronym GNU, in true hacker style, stands for «GNUs Not UNIX»). See FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION, 2004. Available at: <http://www.gnu.org/>. 8 See <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>. 9 A programme’s source code is a series of instructions written in a language intelligible to programmers, such as C++, BASIC, Java, etc. that make up the actual programme. It is the opposite concept to object code, which is a series of instructions for the processor obtained from the source code through automatic translation processes such as compilation and interpretation. 38 FREE SOFTWARE UNDER DEBATE: FREE SOFTWARE, THE LAST OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TECHNOLOGICAL EMANCIPATION tion10 and the X Consortium11. Some of these li- both things, which is often used by detractors of censes unfortunately allow any individual or entity free software to present it as having «no value» and to appropriate the software and turn it into proprie- who resort to the subconscious idea that anything tary software by changing the license. One ex- with value has a monetary cost. Obtaining free ample of this is the proprietary —and very expen- software is also always associated with an actual sive— PSPICE programme used for the purchase cost (even if it just the cost of the CD- simulation of electronic circuits, which was de- ROM where it is copied onto or the Internet con- rived from a free programme developed at the nection to download it) and printed documentation University of California in the 1970s. is also paid for along with support, training and system administration, as is the case with propri- In order to prevent this type of appropriation, the etary software. GNU project created the General Public License (GPL)12, which, aside from ensuring the four above- Free software is just as commercial as proprietary mentioned freedoms, obliges any GPL-licensed software programme to maintain the license in successive modified versions that are distributed, without any Associated with the previous point, free software is additional restrictions being added. This gives legal often branded as being «non-commercial» soft- protection to free software in the same way that ware as a way of discouraging enterprises from us- proprietary software licenses legally prevent any ing it. There is nothing in the definition of free soft- copying, modification or non-authorised use. The ware to prevent economic profit from being made majority of free software has come to be GPL-li- from it, if this is considered to be appropriate. Many censed although there are important applications enterprises have in fact done so, like IBM and new- that for different reasons have preferred to use oth- er companies like Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE and er licenses. many others that develop applicable free software that is then exploited commercially in many differ- 1.2. Potential confusion about free software ent ways. In the case of free software, however, it does not make too much sense to base one’s busi- As mentioned above, a whole series of misunder- ness on the sale of high-priced licenses because standings and falsehoods have developed around the potential competition is very fierce: everybody free software that need to be fervourously op- has the right to obtain a copy of the software and posed. These are some of the most important sell it at the price they like.
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