Free Software
The Wikipedia article on VLC media player says: “VLC is first in the sourceforge.net overall download count and has been downloaded more than 1.3 billion times”. It works on all major operating systems Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD, Solaris, Android, iOS and few more. VLC has around 600,000 Lines of code, VLC uses a lot of external libraries, which are over 3,020,000 lines of code. This is all handwritten code, work of a decade long programming cycle. The software is available in 48 languages. And needless to say integral part of our virtual lives.
So now coming back to the title of the post, yes VLC media player is a free, open-source software. People can download and use it the way they want without any restriction. If you are programming types, you can download its source code, modify it, change whatever you want, turn traffic cone into traffic signal and redistribute, no questions would be asked. Most people cannot understand how incredible it is, but I will try to throw some light. Firstly we are really not grateful enough to the open-source community out of shear ignorance of what they do to make our lives better. We do not realize how easier and cheaper our life has become thanks to the accumulated works of these countless programmers around the world.
Every computing device we use today, proprietary or otherwise, either uses open source software or is in some way inspired (copied) from it. A report by the Standish Group (from 2008) states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers. So how do these software come into being, when nobody is paying the developers who develop it? What inspires these individuals around the world to put in the mind boggling effort that is required to write efficient code? What moral code dictates them to distribute the code just like that and not expect a penny for it?
Answer appears from different directions, for some writing code is a form of art, a sort of poetry that should be shared with one and all. For others it’s a community service, their own way of giving back to the world, remember the $60 billion saving to the consumer. For few its a way of bringing transparency into the world of software industry where companies charge fortunes to their client for nothing. To some it’s a way of creating more secure systems that are tried and tested by everyone around the world and not behind the closed doors of a corporation. Open-source development is a way of getting connected with geniuses around the world and learning from their work. Its a unified world with no boundaries. its a way of life with great sense of work ethic & passion without any sort of discrimination.
The open source community takes Isaac Newton’s words: “I stand on the shoulders of the giants” literally. The code evolves every single day based on the great products built in the past. Every day new libraries are created and a few days later a library that manages these libraries is created. I would not dwell into details of which free software affects you how, that would be overwhelming. The evolving field of software development is driven by community and not some corporate ingenuity. Most solutions to great problems are found on the internet in public forums, it’s more of a collaborative effort. Big companies realise this and they are also making huge contributions to the open-source movement, either with man power or with money.
I really adore the work of people like Richard stallman, Eric.S.Raymond, Bruce Perens and many more who have pioneered the idea of free software. It took some time for industry imbibe this idea of how willingness to share ones work with others will help them manifold, as other’s too will make similar contributions. People go through each other’s code; criticise it, find mistakes with it, most times correct it themselves. Open source development is a vibrant world, where you get to learn on an exponential scale through the mistakes and achievements of others.
This article isn’t intended to draw sympathy towards the work of these dedicated folks. It’s just a reminder to all that, you really haven’t paid for everything that you enjoy today. Please use these words consciously. Like free software developers, countless others in countless other disciplines strive every day selflessly to make this world a better place to live, without expecting much in return. Next time you don’t like a free app on android store please don’t just write “This app sucks!!” in comments. If you don’t like just uninstall it. If at all you want to vent out your frustration be more constructive and write a critical review of the app and explain to the developer why the app sucks. Rate the applications on android that you like, least you can do. If you use torrent seed your torrents, don’t be stingy.
There is no end to where software industry will take us. Human imagination is the limit. Some day with improved computation, continued digitization of historical records, archival of internet blogs & new articles, deep study of social network will lead to an artificial intelligence that can almost mimic an average human mind. We have already heavily dependent on computers for our physical and mental wellbeing, so why not get involved with it. If you cannot learn to code teach your children, it’s not really that difficult and can become a wonderful hobby for a lifetime.