Empowering people using FLOSS...

As computers and OS become more advanced, many are left behind mainly because they don't have the money to make the upgrade. It can be because the new OS is just to expensive, and sometimes it's because they have to buy a new computer to run the latest version.

Sadly, for those not being able to run a modern OS on they computer are at a distinct disadvantage. With time, most of the software needed to interact and work with others stops being supported for their OS and they can't upgrade to the most current version because it won't run on their OS. Meaning that they won't be able to access much of the resources needed to remain current, lessening their chances to land new jobs or better their position.

On this area, FLOSS can help leveling the playing field significantly. Having little to no cost to the user, it empowers users to run modern OS's and all the software that comes with it. Not only that, since there are several distros out there than are targeted to computers with low resources, it means that the cost of entry becomes even lower.

Not only FLOSS can give access to more people to computers, it can also give them the chance to start learning to code, or other computer related abilities, from an earlier age. And also, it would help them to learn about other cultures and people that otherwise would be closed to them. By doing so, we could really start seeing the world becoming a global village.

FLOSS can be the perfect tool to truly empower people, and bring the world together. By giving them the chance not only to learn about the world, but actually engaging it, can make the difference to make it a better place to live in.

The power belongs to the people, and FLOSS can be a great way for the people to grab it.

Annoying tendency to over litigate...

For me it's quite annoying to see how some media treats Apple as the only innovative consumer tech company out there. And everyone else coming with products that even resemble one of Apple's is clearly stealing.

It seems that some hardcore Apple fan's have trouble acknowledging that other tech companies can come with their own implementations of software that end up looking like Apple's own their own. They seem to turn a blind eye, or just ignore the fact, that in many cases implementations look the same because there are only so many ways it's practical to do so.

As such, many of the answers end up looking similar even though each came to it own their own.

Many of the disputes, and courtroom battles, could and should be avoided taking this fact of life as it is. At the end, most of the people that goes to Android wouldn't have gone to Apple to begin with. As it turns out, there is enough market place for both the iPhone and Android ecosystems.

I would appreciate if Apple would get itself to innovate instead of litigate in order to win market share.

FLOSS has come a long way...

As a regular Linux, I use Ubuntu 12.04, and FLOSS user I can't but frown when I come across comments saying that FLOSS is not easy to use or that isn't stable for everyday use.

After using Ubuntu for more than two years as my main OS, I haven't had any problem at all. The few crashes I've experienced had been of particular programs, and those haven't affected the system as a whole. And since Unity came along in the 11.04 release, I think Ubuntu has become easier to use and it looks better.

There hasn't been a problem that I couldn't fix in an hour or less, and all came with easy to follow instructions to work the problem out.

Ubuntu is the one Linux distro that I can recommend to people with little experience around computers, let alone people that want to jump to the FLOSS boat. It's easy to use, stable and comes with all the software that most people is going to need out of the box.

And if you need to add something else, with the Ubuntu Software Center now is a lot easier to look for, and install, the software to do the task you need to get done.

Most arguments against FLOSS have been rendered mute, is just the matter of choosing the right distro for your needs.

The correct implementation...

When it comes to software, the most important thing are how innovative it is and how well it's implemented. And for most users the deal breaker is the implementation part, because it's what they see and use to interact with the software.

No matter how innovative a piece of software, if it isn't correctly implemented it won't take off. Most people don't care about the technical part since they want to be able to use they software with ease, and for it to do what it says without a hiccup.

All innovation should just work and do what it says without extra input from the user, the moment the user has to do things that aren't usually needed the magic is lost. It becomes a drag, and the user is most likely stop using the software.

That's why developers should be careful integrating new features to their software, and only release them to the public once they are fully backed. No matter how good idea is, or how innovative it is, if you don't do it right the user will most likely not going to give you a second chance.

It's a difficult balancing act, that's why there are so few truly innovative software companies out there. Many die trying to bring innovation, while implement it just right. In many cases, how the users see the implementations is a matter of perception.

No two users see things the same way, so it's a difficult task to find the implementation that will work for the target audience.

Yet, the most innovative software won't stand a chance if it isn't implemented correctly in the eyes of the users.

Filtering new information to get what you want..

It's amazing how much information can be accessed at this moment of time. And much of it can be accessed on the fly, either by laptops or smartphones at whatever place we might be at any given moment.

As a matter of fact, at the end of the day it's equally what you already know and if you have the ability to find relevant new information to solve problems on the fly. Experience is still valuable, and will remain so, but if you don't develop the ability to keep learning you'll find yourself at a disadvantage.

Equally important is to be able to filter all the information according to its relevance, not being able to filter it effectively can be costly and time consuming. Here is where experience come more handy, since it helps to have a better background to filter the new set of information with. Experience is one of the best tools to filter out the noise.

Information is a powerful tool if, and only if, we can correctly put it in the right context to make it relevant. If not, is just meaningless noise or have almost no use. At the end, no information is not useful by itself.

When information meets experience, they become a virtually unstoppable force. If we have the experience to better filter the information you get, the better choices you make. As with many other aspects of life, all comes to be able to balance.

All comes to applying the right filter to come to the information needed to solve almost every problem.

Open-source values...

If the open-source values of not only giving people access to the core workings, but also the ability to modify and redistribute, where expanded to all other facets of human experience things would be better.

Since all would have access to the core, solutions to the challenges we face would be a lot easier to get to with if we could modify them to work to the situation we face or want to solve. And if that new building blocks could be distributed too, the benefits of that work would reach a lot more people.

Hiding, or not allowing people, to modify the core of anything is not good in the long run for society at large.

Innovation is a lot easier if we all can access the core and work with it to make it better, or to make it work in different ways to better suit other set of parameters. Time after time a lot of projects have shown that the open-source paradigm has show that it work to foster innovation and as a business model.

If we could apply it to our communities, so that anyone can have access to the core working to work on the problem hand on could have the effect of solving our problems a lot faster.

By having the people who want to tackle the problem working directly on the core of what they are trying to solve, the answer will come a lot sooner. Not only that, we would be given the possibility to modify the workings to be better able to work it out, and then be able to redistribute it without any restriction. It would give everything a lot more transparency.

If we work like that, our problems would be a lot easier to sort out.

Control over your system...

On FLOSS the user can have a better fit on the configuration of their system, since the degree of control over the software is really up to the user.

Depending on the distro, the degree of control over what happens on your system is great. Even on the most basic distros, the degree of control is quite great since most of the most important features can be control by the user.

Having such control over what your system does, is important safe guard your privacy. Since there are many people interested on the data you have on your system, is important to be able to control how your system works and protects itself from malware.

Even if the user doesn't actually uses all the configuration options, those options should be there. There is no real reason for not including those options, or why the user shouldn't be able to have control over them. After all, the final word of what goes on the user's system should be the one of the user.

No other should have a say, other than to give information so the user can make a more informed decision on how to better configure his system.

Is our system, we should have the total control over it.

Open technology is the way...

As technology advances, we are faced with a choice that'll have greater repercussions than we can imagine at the moment.

We can have open and unrestricted technology, where the users have control over the technology we use. Or we could be facing technology that we can't control, and that only a few hands can access and modify the underpins of all the technology we depend on.

If we want a better future, a future on which we have a say, the way to go is to have one where technology is open to all. If there is a need to restrict it somehow, those restrictions should have clear and tight limits to their reach. Without putting such things on any regulations, they become toxic and stops doing what they were designed to do.

All technology should be open to everyone to study, so that people can understand how it works and what it does. And whit the knowledge gain by studying it, people should be able to modify it in any way to make it work as they want it to work.

If we don't do something to keep it open, we risk to loose the control over what we own and our abilities to defend our rights as citizens and consumers. We run the risk to be at the mercy of the governments and business want to take us, without even considering us and our needs.

That's why we have to keep control of the technology, and keep it out of the hands of a few people.

Freedom of open standards...

Let's face it, the reality is that no software is a perfect fit for every user out there. What the users need varies a lot, depending on what they'll use their computer for and how it'll be used.

Therefore, the specs needed on the software can vary a lot from one user to another. The idea of an average user is just helpful to have a starting point, but not much else. When you look the details of how the software will be used, the work done on it can vary much from situation to situation.

This is why standards should be open, enabling developers to better fit the software to the user without having to worry if the standard will work with the software his working on.

On the user side, there will be less concern if the software they're implementing will work with what they already have. Being secure that what they have will work independently of the platform they are working on, it's a great reassurance. This frees a lot of resources to actually work on what is important to the user.

Open standards benefit all who work using them, since it gives them the reassurance that they can work on adding values to what they without having to worry if it'll work.

Let's support open standards, because by doing so we get the freedom to have a common platform and having the reassurance that it'll work the way we want it to.

It's a way on which we all win.

Free from dependency...

Open source is the antidote in cases on which a particular software is dropped by the parent company for whatever reason. By being able to access the source code, anyone else can take it from that point on without much trouble.

Being capable of doing so, is not only useful to users. It actually can be seen as a safety net, an insurance that there is no dependency on any external party to keep the software they need up and running.

Not only that, since the source code is open to anyone interested in developing it the workload of doing so can be spread to all the interested parties in continuing the development of the code. By doing so, the development can continue virtually without much disruption.

Since all the users already had access to the source code, the fundamentals are well understood to begin with. With this understandings, there is a lot easier to continue development in house, or find someone else to do it.

There is no dependency on a single source of development, freeing resources to do some other things that the user needs to do.

Open source software is a key tool to keep you from being locked-in, and therefore reduce dependency, on the fate of a single source. At the end, closed source software is only good for the source of the software.

Freedom to share...

It's rather sad to see that big content providers equate people sharing their content to stealing, which is a not the same thing and a big mistake.

By branding people that share content like criminals, many of those content providers are actually alienating people from what they have to offer. When people share content, they are not stealing since they are not claiming what they share as theirs. They just want to let people know about what they like, or news that they feel are relevant.

That's why there should a clear and concise differentiation of what is sharing, and what makes it stealing. Having this guidelines in place, it would be a great place to begin with to protect people from companies that seek to harass them because they shared something with other people. Is important to have those guidelines in place make help protect everyone involved, and to create conscience that is fine to share content.

Most importantly, that sharing content is not the same that stealing it.

It's time to move forward, and create a model on which sharing content is seen as the beneficial act that it is. Sharing actually helps the content creator to make themselves known, and having the change to get their work out there.

Sharing is not a criminal act, is something that comes naturally to all of us. As such, it should be allowed to continue without any restriction.