Today there is a vast amount of software available at no monetary cost. The software is usually covered by some form of licence. One of the most popular licences is the
General Public License (GPL).
A lot of Open Source software is created to run on open platforms such as Linux. Installing software on Linux is a little less straightforward than installing software under Windows. For a start, Linux has quite a few different "flavours". I use Ubuntu Linux, but there are several other options available for the personal user as well as corporations.
Under Ubuntu, some software is available for installation via the Ubuntu Software Center (under the Applications Menu). Ubuntu also has the Synaptic Package Manager (under the System > Administration menu).
Ubuntu is maintained and distributed by
Canonical, a company with a goal of providing quality open source software. The software available under the Applications Menu has been tested to work with Ubuntu. This also goes for software under the Synaptic Package Manager, if it isn't listed as "universe" or "multiverse". There are also a lot of debug versions of software to assist developers.
Other Open Source Software
There are various forums on the web that discuss open source software. Some of the software is not available under the software manager on your platform. The authors usually provide information as to how to download and install their software. The process is not as simple as that under Windows, where you usually download an exe file and double-click to run it. Linux has (arguably) a slightly tighter security model than Windows. You need to install software as a Super User. This is a bit like having Administrative access under Windows.
Sometimes Open Source software requires other software to run correctly. If installed using the Software Manager, then any pre-requisites are installed along with the software you select. This is great. Sometimes under Windows, you install software and it needs something else, but you don't know what...
Keeping Current
Ubuntu has an Update Manager that checks whether there are any updates required for you platform. But it does more than that. It also checks for updates for any software you have installed from the Ubuntu Software Center or the Synaptics Package Manager (base level). The process seems much quicker to me than Windows.
Is it Useful?
I have found the software available under Open Source to be as good as, or better than, commercial software. OpenOffice provides basically the same functionality as Microsoft Office. OK, there are some areas that are different, but for the general user, it works fine. There are plenty of options available for multimedia software. For Ubuntu, there is a site called
Medibuntu that provides a host of great packages, installation instructions and discussion forums.
Give it a go!
If you are running Windows, it is possible to boot your PC from a USB stick with Ubuntu installed. This means you can run Ubuntu without any permanent changes to your machine. You can also run Ubuntu as a "dual boot" option alongside Windows. If there are some software products that you use under Windows that you think you absolutely cannot do without, then there are software products under Ubuntu such as WINE, that allow you to install and run Windows software.
The cost? Your time. You need to search for software, read about what people are saying in the various web forums, then understand how to install it (together with any pre-requisite software). If you aren't used to doing this yourself, find an Open Source friend, or use the forums. I have found people in the forums very helpful for new comers (newbies). You can quite often find an old discussion that answers your questions.
