Introduction
This is an article arguing why anyone should use Free Software. It shows the current understanding of software in the society and what the implications for commercial software are. The intention is to show the moral issues behind commercial software.
Why have I changed?
First of all, let me tell you why I have changed to Free Software, specifically the GNU/Linux operating system. I was just curious what all the hype was about. Before I completely switched, I had tried some distributions, especially SuSE Linux. As the temptation was big to start Windows for a task I didn't know how to do with Linux (e.g. burning CDs) I decided to install Linux again, but this time without any Windows partition left on the hard disk. I did just that and I use Debian GNU/Linux since then. So my reasons didn't have anything to do with hating Microsoft or some other personal story. It was just the fact that Linux convinced me and I think it's the real thing.
Software in our society
Most people don't see the big effort associated with creating software. As software isn't something you can touch (opposed to a car or a PC for example) this is quite understandable. So it's hard to understand why popular consumer software can cost hundreds of dollars. Corporate software is even more expensive and can cost from hundreds of thousands up to several millions of dollars. This has different reasons, and I think one of them is that corporate customers understand better the costs associated with a piece of software.
A typical desktop installation costs quite a lot. MS Windows, MS Office and some kind of graphics software. And this needs to be repeated every two years because you want to stay up to date, don't you? So it's a question of importance if you want to pay that much money. Cars are widely accepted as being important and many people wouldn't want to live without. Clothes are essential, so you're willing to pay quite much for clothes and many people even want to be in fashion all the time. Rarely anyone will debate about the importance of cars or clothes (or food, education, apartment or furnishings. And there are most certainly other things I forgot to list). But today the PC isn't (yet) that important for most people.
Piracy
Piracy is widely accepted today. Most households with a PC have some piece of pirated software installed. This is a way to always have current software and still get away without spending tons of money.
Clearly, piracy is a form of theft but still most people accept it as a fact. But why is that? In fact, it can come to the paradox situation that you're insulted because you don't want to share your copy of legally bought software. I don't know about the situation in other countries but this happened to me here in Switzerland. I believe this comes from the arguments listed in the chapter "Software in our society".
Where does Free Software come in?
I understand that Free Software is the solution to the problem of piracy. Free Software can legally be copied without paying anything to the author. So you don't have to break the law for keeping up to date with installed software.
Why would anyone be so dumb to create Free Software? I have stated that good software is hard work to write. But still there are people that are writing great software and providing it for free. This isn't as unusual as it may sound. For example, there are studies that show that our society couldn't run that smoothly without volunteers. Millions of hours of work are voluntary. Be it to help the sick or disabled, working within the church, organizing and perform sports events, and uncountable other activities. Then think of the people who make great sculptures, build cars, motorcycles or bicycles or work to improve their wonderful gardens. All in their free time. I'm sure there are a lot of other common examples. Maybe you understand now that there are people who write great pieces of software and give it away for free. After all for these people it's a hobby.
Conclusion
So there are two possibilities to escape the "piracy society". First, you can just pay for your software and you aren't breaking the law. If you're in the station to do this, great! But if you aren't willing or able to pay your software, you should certainly consider to start using Free Software. If you want to know how you could do this, you can contact me at <webmaster@patrice.ch>. I will do my best to help you. Thank you for reading this article, I'm looking forward to hearing from you.