Free Software

We at Stuph Labs are proud proponents of the free software movement. We believe free software to be superior to the non-free alternative ethically and in most cases practically.

What is free software?

Free software is software that gives the user certain freedoms such as the freedom to run, alter and redistribute the software as the user sees fit. More precisely, free software is any software released under a license determined to be a free license by the free software foundation. Popular examples include: Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird and the Linux kernel.

Why is free software better?

Ethically, free software is superior because of the freedoms it extends the user. These freedoms allow the user of free software to run the software in any way he sees fit, the freedom to alter the software for his specific needs (or to hire someone else to alter the software for him) and the freedom to redistribute the software as he sees fit. These freedoms deal with common issues and problems arising from using non-free software. Using free software helps you avoid problems such as licensing issues, vendor lock-in and activation issues.

Practically speaking, free software is superior because of the variety of customization options open to the user. With free software the user is free to customize the particular software or the whole system to fit his needs, or he may hire an Open Source consulting company to alter the software or system. Because of the faster development cycle of free software bugs and security issues are resolved much faster. Because of the absence of licensing restraints free software is more cost effective and can lessen the financial burden of technology upgrades on any business.

For more information about free software please visit the Free Software Foundation website.