What is Open Source?

From Wikipedia:

“Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration. A main principle of open-source software development is peer production, with products such as source code, blueprints, and documentation freely available to the public. The open-source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code. The model is used for projects such as in open-source appropriate technology, and open-source drug discovery.”

What are some benefits of Open Source?

  1. Developers work on projects our of their own passion and drive, and not simply for profit. This results in leaner and more efficient programs.

  2. An open source project is undergoing constant and public scrutiny and iteration. Bugs are caught more quickly, and resolved more quickly, thanks to a distributed set of users.

  3. If mainline code changes are not the preferred way to contribute, interested programmers can make plugins or add ons to enhance an existing feature or add a new one.

  4. Thanks to the constant scrutiny and transparent codebase, open source programs are often safer and can be more trusted than the proprietary programs sold for profit on the market.

  5. Creators are able to focus on their creations, rather than on acquiring licenses and cutting into the profit of their passions.

Open Source Programs

Text Editing

LibreOffice - https://www.libreoffice.org/ - Analogs of the complete Microsoft Office Suite Notepad++ - https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ - Perfect for note taking, for organizing ideas, and for programming.

Photo Editing

GIMP - https://www.gimp.org/ - Similar to photoshop, but with more supported files and plugins. paint.net - https://www.getpaint.net/ - Alternative software which is more lightweight and has UIO similar to the Microsoft classic.

Audio Editing

Audacity - https://www.audacityteam.org/ - Powerful and intuitive tool for recording and editing any audio projects.

Video Editing

OpenShot - https://www.openshot.org/ - Import and export in a variety of formats and have complete control over your video projects.

Multimedia Playback

VLC Media Player - https://www.videolan.org/ - The VLC player is renowned for being able to support and play just about any video or audio you throw at it. It can even view pictures in a slideshow!

Security

KeePass - https://keepass.info/ - Simple password manager which features encryption and an intuitive UI.

File Management

7-zip - https://www.7-zip.org/ - Easily create and customize archives and .zip folders

Operating Systems

Linux - https://www.linux.org/ - In some ways the grandfather of all open source software, the Linux OS is has endless customization and can be built to fit any users needs.

Federated Projects and Platforms

The Fediverse is made up of separate open source social softwares which are interconnected through their shared ActivityHub protocol.

People who want to gather and discuss in communities online deserve a place to do it without admin oversight / for profit influence / advertiser influence / opaque moderation, regardless of how anyone in position of authority feels about it.

There already exist some fantastic platforms which are analogs for popular social media, including…

Lemmy - https://join-lemmy.org/ - You are here! Lemmy, with similar function and UI to Reddit, allows for individuals to host and administrate their own instances. These instances can also interact with each other freely.

Mastodon - https://joinmastodon.org/ - Similar function and UI to Reddit, Mastodon allows for a personal microblog and the ability to follow and be followed by other users.

Matrix - https://joinmatrix.org/ - Matrix is built in the style of Discord, where real time conversation can take place between groups and communities of any size.

PeerTube - https://joinpeertube.org/ - A video hosting service which positions as a YouTube alternative, this allows for users to share their created video media while retaining creative control and ownership.