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economy, small business economy, education, small business, stimulus, tax cuts

The free software movement was started decades ago, but never before has it been more important.  With our economy in peril, consumers and small businesses must be prudent about spending.  While some may mistakenly associate free software with spyware, ads and other annoyances, most free programs do not have these “features”. In fact, a few that I mention are aimed at fighting spyware and reducing ads.

Examples of real world free software

There are many great examples of free software being used by people all over the world.  One of my favorite free programs is Firefox.  It is a fast and secure web browser that is completely community driven in its development and features.  You can even add plug-ins to enhance your functionality to block ads and Javascript, see the current weather or even play your iTunes.

Another great example is Open Office.  It is by far the most powerful free office suite on Earth.  It has more features than most of the commercial office suites, its development is entirely community driven and of course it can read and write files that Microsoft Office, Word Perfect and other word processing programs can read.  It’s interface is similar enough to other office document composition programs that it only takes a short time to learn.

Everyone must stay secure with the dangerous viruses and spyware that are pervasive on the Internet and in workplaces.  I find that the AVG Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware 8.0 Free Edition is more powerful than its commercial competition, like Norton and McAfee.   Many viruses are familiar with how to render these scanners useless by injecting rogue code in to memory and circumvent the security protection.  While AVG is not a community driven effort, the quality of the software is such that it warrants inclusion as a top tier free software product.

There is a growing community of people who have grown dissatisfied with commercial operating systems like Windows or Mac OS X and moved to open source.  Operating systems like FreeBSD and Linux provide incredibly robust, secure and dynamic alternatives to the commercial operating systems that many feel are overpriced and underwhelming in features.  For new users I recommend trying Ubuntu Linux.  It’s an easy to use graphically driven Linux distribution that allows for a more horizontal learning curve when adjusting from Windows or Mac OS X.

Empowering the individual

Most people are genuinely thrilled by the prospect of a free software solution to what was once an expensive and complex licensing nightmare.  A community of dedicated and brilliant developers who generously share their skills and resources to create wonderful and powerful software is a surely great value.

My company, Envescent, favors open source software.  We use all of the above mentioned free software and more for our every day operations and for our many clients. Since I opened shop in 1999, I’ve always been passionate about using open source for my company.  If you’re still skeptical consider the following:

• Free software allows individuals and businesses to save funds and focus spending on other areas or expand profit margins.
• Many free software programs are open source and community driven, meaning there is also a community to rely on for support.
• Licensing for commercial software is extremely complex and for many people it is unclear what their rights are or how long the software is usable.
• Free software uses much less complex and restrictive licensing.
• Most free software is freely distributable and usable by individuals without significant restrictions.
• Free software brings education, productivity, security and communication to developing nations and disenfranchised individuals.
• Community-driven free software improves security and quality because bugs are addressed quickly and transparently.

Keeping the competition in check

Commercial vendors are forced to improve their products or be pushed aside by free software.  This keeps them in check and if they can’t make their software worthwhile to purchase, then they will lose market share.  Indeed, in recent years market share of Internet Explorer has significantly eroded to the open source Firefox browser.

Microsoft has been pooling resources to determine how it will compete with open source.  This move signals that the management sees free software a true threat to their desktop market dominance.

Improving the world

Free software is making the technology world, and really the world as a whole, a better, more affordable place.  The unrealistically overpriced and burdensomely licensed commercial alternatives are becoing dinosaurs on the digital landscape.  Novice computer users all over the world are embracing free alternatives and with that Microsoft and their ilk should be determining their next move carefully.  Commercial software vendors would do well to embrace the one core philosophy of open source.  Let the community drive the software, it makes the world a better place!

free software, small business avg anti-virus, firefox, free software, open office, open source

I’ve been pondering how to resolve the mess we’ve made and I’ve come up with some ideas.  This is not a complete vision, but a plan that would get us on the right track.

Stop lending tax payer money to banks and use funds to help our economy.

Incentives for small businesses and young people to help the next generation have opportunities and education.

Regulate financial institutions so they cannot ever use leverage to manipulate the economy.

Use any stimulus packages to create jobs here in the US to make sure we have a strong future.

Focus on green energy / energy independence so we can stop exporting our wealth.  Invest in solar/wind/geothermal energy infrastructure and natural gas for transportation.

Reinvigorate our manufacturing of basic items to support the new infrastructure.  Revive the “rust belt” so many can regain their livelihood supporting America’s new economy.

Create other jobs by upgrading both schools and the Internet to increase the capacity and usability here and abroad. At the same time provide protection for the US Internet from attacks originating from foreign nations. Schools would benefit with a computer in every classroom that has direct access to limitless amounts of information (without the games, porn and other nonsense).

Clawback bonuses and other frivolous expenses from banks and/or bank executives that have received any tax payer money that then issued bonuses, stock options, vacations, etc. Cease projects such as Citi stadium and others that are essentially funded by tax payer funds and start bidding process to public interests (that are not being bailed out) to buy out projects.

Slowly withdraw troops from various active and inactive war zones (Iraq, Japan, Germany, UK, eastern Europe, etc). Shut down inactive bases. Reduce scale of missile program in Europe if not completely eliminate.  Stop all unnecessary offensive military spending.  Examine relationships between government agencies and contractors.

Create higher quality restrictions on imports and natively produced products such as food, clothing, electronics, etc. The quality would be defined as how harmless it is to both the consumer and the environment. Higher quality products would be subject to less tariffs or taxes. This would both reduce environmental burden of bad products by making them more expensive and provide incentive to companies to improve their manufacturing / farming / etc standards.

Stop the boom bust cycles by allowing open governance by markets or otherwise of interest rates rather than allowing them to be set by committees behind closed doors.

American ingenuity and common sense can get us out of this mess eventually, but if we keep using lemon socialism that rewards the corporations that succeed and robs the tax payers for the ones that don’t, we’ll be in a very long recession.

economy America, economy, future, plan