I'll admit, I'd heard of OpenSource before but never gave much thought about it. I always thought it was the "free" version of Microsoft Office. That must mean it was crappy and didn't perform well, right? Well, I still don't consider myself an expert by any means but here is what I gather...
OpenSource is created by people not necessarily liked to computer software companies. OpenSource software may be created by numerous people. Because of this it allows for more kinks to be worked out because more people review it. OpenSource allows access to source codes that anyone can use and really doesn't cost much, if anything at all. Additionally, you have the rights to redistribute or modify the license as you see fit.
The terms free software and open source are often confused. Most people believe they are one in the same, however, according to wikipedia.org "Free software' focuses on the philosophical freedoms it gives to users and 'open source' focuses on the perceived strengths of its peer-to-peer development model." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOSS) What I believe this is saying is free software is just that; free, and while free is good, it's not great. OS believes in peer-to-peer reviewing, thus tweaking their products making them better.
I found a lot of OS licenses under categories such as education, NASA, open communities but I when I clicked on the links for the OS within these categories I really couldn't understand what exactly the programs were. So if someone reading this can explain to me how to determine what the heck I would be downloading that would be great!
In education some of the applications I use include SMART tools and SeaMonkey .
SeaMonkey is a free program that allows me to create and maintain my classroom web page. I will soon be teaching students how to create their own web pages! SMART tools I don't think is free but it was for me because I have a SMART board. I use this program daily and really can't remember my teaching life before I had it.
This is all I have for now... Till next time!
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