7/03/2013

The true value of free software...

What many people fail to realize about free software, is where its true value resides. Most people tend to believe that the main value of free software is on the cost, focusing just on the financial side of the equation.

Cost is not where the free software main value resides, since some free software can cost quite some money and don't lose its value to the people who deploy it.

The main value of free software comes from the freedoms it gives to the users, and the fact that those freedoms make it much more flexible. This means that the user truly gets more that just the right to use or implement certain software, the user also gets the right to actually modify the software to better suit whatever need may arise at any point in time.

Any software you need, will cost you something. The cost might be money or time, but the cost is still there to be taken into account. Yet, free software gives you the power and flexibility that comes with being able to modify it without having to ask special permissions from the original developers, since those permissions are given to you to begin with.

The saying of you get what you pay for still holds some water on free software, but just by its nature it's much more flexible than any analog closed software. You just need to find the free software that better suits the needs you need covered, and have the right resources to implement it.

Free software it's not only about cost, there is so much more than that to it.

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