Can we make the software world better?

A bit about free software

Let's think together about how free software differs from what is called proprietary (or proprietary)? In the context of this topic, free software will be understood as “free and open source software” (ie, FOSS or FLOSS).

There is already a lot of controversy about whether free software is better or worse than proprietary, and we will not talk about it. The end user usually doesn’t care, as long as the software solves the tasks.

Although, if you dig deeper, then even the end user sometimes has to do with "free." For example, when he decides to share some kind of program with his friend, the question “is it possible?” Arises (not everyone certainly has ^ ^), and most likely the answer to this question is “no”.

What are the advantages of free software can be identified by approaching this issue from different angles?
- Freedom of distribution - yes , you can share the program with a friend
- Freedom to learn - yes , you can learn what the program does and how
- Freedom to change - yes , you can change your software as you wish
- Freedom of reuse - yes , you can take ready-made developments for a new program, thereby saving time on inventing a bicycle
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With free software, we already have four yes , which software does not have non-free. In addition to the above, there are also implicit advantages, such as open source. Free software is usually developed openly, which means that you can send bug reports, follow the process, or participate in the development.

Of course, I don’t discover America here and, probably, all this is understandable to everyone, but this introduction is necessary in order to get to the main topic of the topic.

Disadvantages of free software

Above are four significant advantages of free software, but what are the disadvantages? The biggest disadvantage of free software today is that it is very difficult to recoup its development. Because The software is distributed (copied) freely, standard schemes do not work on it, and you have to invent something of your own. Large and popular projects often have sponsors. Profit from very small projects, but well-known - this is the popularity of the author, a line in the resume or portfolio. But what about little-known or medium-sized projects that have not found their sponsor, but already require more than just “time off from work”?

Yes, of course, we can say “this is their problem”, even if they want it, they earn it, but not only they (the developers), but also we (the users) benefit from this freedom. And we can make it so that developers do not have to look for ways to “sell” their software, but instead they did what they do best - they wrote programs.

What can we do

And what can we? Everything is very simple. Found a free program that does what you need? Find an analog, see how much it costs and donate! Too expensive? Make donate less. Or think that too little? Donate more. If this is a program that you use all the time or earn your living with it, turn on the monthly donate, even if it is small.

And what do we have?
- We do not pay intermediaries (distributors)
- We do not pay holders of "patents", "copyrights", etc.
- We do not pay for a "copy"
- We don’t invest in private development, but instead we say “thank you” and invest in free software development, the source code of which can be used many more times
- We pay only for what we use and as much as we ourselves consider necessary and possible