Some answers about software libre

What is software libre?
The main difference between software libre and privative software consists on the former having open source. Among many other things it means that anyone could take that code and modify and improve it.

Why is it free? Has it got a worse quality?

It is not true that all software libre is free as many software developers live on their applications and they can sell them. But as I have said previously the fact that is open source makes possible that a lot more people can modify and therefore improve it.

On the other hand, what I have checked when speaking with (my friend) a software developer is that many times they try to make such a good product that many times they forget about making it visually appealing.

Why should we use software libre in education?

From my point of view there are some reasons why we should use software libre in education.

• Economical

As we don’t have to acquire licenses for each terminal, we can spend our budget in a more efficient way. Instead of buying licenses we can ask software developers to make an application that fulfill our necessities, or we can spend that money in forming ourselves… As well, many high schools and universities have degrees on computerization; by using software libre, maybe the best students could be offered the oportunity to work for that university with grants in order to develop their studies in favour of the institution.

• Reachability

There are enough applications to fulfill any user request. As well, many of those computers that still work but are not very modern can be still used as there is the opportunity of using an OS that requires less potent machines. We can also save money here.

• Values

Last but not least, and from my point of view the most important one is the values on which software libre is based. Knowledge has to be reachable to anyone, we all build our knowledge and from my experience anyone can be benefited. Doesn’t sound fantastic as a learning principle?

I don’t know how to…

I can tell you that I use Ubuntu and there is only one thing I find really difficult to do: Installing some programs that are not design as packets. For the rest of my tasks I have found an application that fulfill my recquirement. And they are not difficult to use.

There is not much I can tell you. I have changed my mind into “software libre” mode before I actually jumped into Ubuntu (which I made by means of neccessity to tell you the whole truth). Nevertheless, as private people we should be free to use what we want, but as public entities in charged of education, we should think twice what we do and what we want to transmit.

This video was the starting point of my complete change of mind, I still have a lot to learn, but I hope that it also helps you as much as it helped me.