I'm sure you know, but today is Software Freedom Day. To many, that might sound like a rather silly concept, but there are some good arguments for how free software promotes human rights. First, understand that freedom isn't about cost, but about the ability to use and reuse the software. Consider the control of information and its role in human rights. It is software that controls information in today's world.

For a more in depth explanation involving a discussion of voting systems check out SoftwareFreedomDay.org's own explanation of why software freedom is important to our world. I'll try to summarize it for you here. It is a foreign concept to many and I find most people don't understand why they should care. Let me try to help.

Many of you know that I'm a fan of an operating system called Linux. My own use of Linux is motivated in part by the value of software freedom. When we talk freedom, we aren't simply speaking of "no cost". Even if I was able to get Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office for free, I'd not be interested in them. They have other limiting factors. The way they do what they do is hidden and the formats they save their files in are not shared with others. In other words, the information you own is locked behind an artificial gate. The only purpose for it is the profit of the software vendor.

Freedom is what motivated a state government recently to consider using something besides Microsoft Office for their documents. They recognized that the documents they produced were stuck in a format that you couldn't use unless you owned Microsoft Office. If you've ever had to buy Microsoft Office, you'll know it isn't a cheap program. The lowest price I found for the latest version of Office in the standard edition was $210. This is not even close to accessible for the poorest in our country without the use of a library. Further, the fact that the format of the documents is locked means that in another 10 years, when that format is no longer commonly in use or you decide another software fits your need better, these documents will be even harder to make use of, if not impossible.

Anyway, today is a day set aside to try to communicate these values. I think the most important part to understand is that free does not equal freedom. The next thing I think you should know, there are quality alternatives that I use daily.

You may have heard of some of them:

• Mozilla Firefox browse the web in freedom
• Open Office freedom from closed office formats, but the ability to still work in a closed format world
• Scribus Freedom to create your own newsletters, pamphlets, flyers and more
• GIMP Freedom to make your own graphics and touch-up your pictures
• Stellarium Freedom to study the stars and planets
• Thunderbird Freedom to communicate through Email

We're just scratching the surface of the free softwares available. The ones above are all available for both Linux and Windows users. If you take the dive with me to Linux, you'll find a whole bunch more just waiting for you on the other side. :-)