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straumer committed Sep 22, 2024
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www.netveldi.com
www.netveldi.com
42 changes: 42 additions & 0 deletions about/index.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<meta charset="utf-8">
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<title>Netveldi - About
</title>
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<body>
<header>
<a href="/"><img id="header-img" src="/img/portrait.jpg"></a>
<div id="header-text">
<h3><a href="/">Netveldi</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>Matthías Ragnarsson</li>
<li><a href="mailto:matt@netveldi.com">matt@netveldi.com</a> (<a href="/netveldi_email_key.asc">PGP</a>)</li>
</ul>
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<li><a href="/articles">Articles</a></li>
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<h1>About</h1>
<p>I am a computer scientist and have been engineering software and systems for several years. I keep this site up with the interest in the empowerment of everyday people and professionals in the field of information technology, security and privacy.</p>
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52 changes: 52 additions & 0 deletions articles/free-software-comes-first/index.html
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<title>Netveldi - Free software comes first
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<a href="/"><img id="header-img" src="/img/portrait.jpg"></a>
<div id="header-text">
<h3><a href="/">Netveldi</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>Matthías Ragnarsson</li>
<li><a href="mailto:matt@netveldi.com">matt@netveldi.com</a> (<a href="/netveldi_email_key.asc">PGP</a>)</li>
</ul>
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<h1>Free software comes first</h1>
<code>Created: <time pubdate timedate="2024-09-18">2024-09-18</time></code>
<p>All of us use electronic equipment to interact and let information flow between us for our benefit. The more we depend on that equipment in our activities, the more important it is to understand some fundamental aspects of the digital world in order to stay empowered in the long run. One very important aspect, the one I talk about in this article, has to do with our choice of software with respect to its license and the accessibility of its source code. Software includes applications, operating systems and other digital tools. Once we are concious of certain human dynamics in the creation of software, we can adopt principles and practices to live more empowered. This article is for users of software, not software developers, but it is necessary to mention important points from the perspective of the software developer in order to better choose our software.</p>
<p>In the case of digital electronic devices such as a laptop or a cellphone, we call their physical part hardware. The hardware stores and works with data in a variety of ways and each fundamental element of the data has two possible states which we normally label 1 and 0. Software is data which instructs the hardware to function in certain ways. One important difference between the hardware and software is that it is possible to copy the software and distribute copies of it practically without any cost, while the hardware is physical and not copiable without spending much energy and materials.</p>
<p>Typically, the software has a license in the form of a legal text that says what you can and cannot do with it. These licenses are enforced by governmental entities. When licenses restrict the use of the software, these restrictions tend to limit the actions of those who want to develop or reuse the software. For example, a license can say that no one except the proprietors of the software can modify, distribute or redistribute modified versions of the software. Other users of the software usually are not affected directly by those restrictions, but they are affected indirectly. When users choose software, they are also choosing who can be a developer of the software or who can reuse parts of the software in the future and in what way, in what circumstances and for what purpose etcetera.</p>
Software has two representations: source code which is written in a language that is more easily understood by humans, and the machine code which instructs the behavior of the hardware. The source code goes through the process of compilation which transforms it to machine code. It is possible to directly understand and update the machine code, but that process is much more tedious and there are few people who know how to do it well. Furthermore, that form of the software runs on only one type of processor, and the hardware can contain different types of processors. In contrast, one can compile the source code for any kind of processor where the software must run. Sometimes the software is provided as a web service where it only runs on the hardware of third parties and is accessible through a browser or some other application. In that case it is impossible for developers apart from the third parties themselves to update or reuse the software if the third parties don't share its source code or machine code.
<p>We now return to the question of what kind of software is better to choose for empowered users considering both its license and who has access to its source code. The license and access to the source code determines what developers can do what with the software. The nature of the software and its future updates are affected by those that develop it. Then the question becomes what kinds of developers with what motives empower us more with their development of the software today and in the future.</p>
<p>Let's consider developers that create a license that does not permit anyone except themselves to develop the software and do not permit anyone else to see or modify the source code. Although it practically does not cost them anything to let others develop or reuse the software with a more permissible license and access to the source code, the most common motive to not do it is economic. Giving themselves the only right to develop or reuse the software, they can keep it exactly how they want, including requiring users to pay them for obtaining copies and using it. That practice makes more sense for hardware copies because to create an exact physical copy of hardware has a cost, but the cost of copying software is practically zero. They can also make the users pay in different ways, some examples being to make the software show advertisements or gather information about the user (plainly said espionage). Without sharing the source code, it is also easier to hide malicious functions in the software and the developers often complicate the software and make it less efficient in order to prevent copying or illegal modifications of it. Software with such licenses and unavailable source code is called proprietary software.</p>
<p>In contrast are the developers that share the software's source code and use permissible licenses that basically permit everyone to develop and reuse the software without any conditions. Those developers recognize the zero cost of distributing copies of the source code and don't create artificial restrictions for their benefit. Often they develop the software voluntarily for others or for themselves as users of the software. Sometimes they work at companies that need the software to work well and develop it for that reason. They can also accept payments for creating updates to the software. Software with licenses like that and accessible source code is called free software.</p>
<p>Let's suppose we are about to choose between proprietary software and free software to perform certain activities and the free software can perform them adequately. Let's suppose also that we are going to invest much time into learning to use the chosen software expertly. The option that empowers us more must be the free software because it does not require as much of our trust in the creators of the software. We don't need to trust in that they won't raise the cost of the software or that they don't change it in some way for economic motives to extract more value from the user because that motive doesn't exist. It requires less trust in that the developer doesn't hide malicious functionality in the software because the source code provides more transparency and there are other developers and technical people that can review the code. There is also less risk of bad investment in learning how to use the software because we don't need to trust that the economic motives of the developers won't make the software worse or make it cost more. The final point is that free software is more our own. We the users control the software that the developers create and not in reverse. Maybe we don't develop it ourselves, but we have the power to do it or to get someone else to do it that knows how to, if necessary.</p>
<p>In conclusion, to be empowered in our choice of software with respect to its license and its accessibility to its source code, it is better to prioritize free software, then less restricted software and finally proprietary software.</p>
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="data:image/png;base64,">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css">
<title>Netveldi - Articles
</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<a href="/"><img id="header-img" src="/img/portrait.jpg"></a>
<div id="header-text">
<h3><a href="/">Netveldi</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>Matthías Ragnarsson</li>
<li><a href="mailto:matt@netveldi.com">matt@netveldi.com</a> (<a href="/netveldi_email_key.asc">PGP</a>)</li>
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<h1>Articles</h1>
<code>2024-09-18</code>: <a href="/articles/free-software-comes-first">Free software comes first</a>
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<h3><a href="/es/">Netveldi</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>Matthías Ragnarsson</li>
<li><a href="mailto:matt@netveldi.com">matt@netveldi.com</a> (<a href="/netveldi_email_key.asc">PGP</a>)</li>
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<h1>Acerca de la página</h1>
<p>Soy un informático y he diseñado software y sistemas por varios años. Mantengo este sitio con el interés del empoderamiento a la gente de pie y profesionales en el ámbito de la informática, seguridad y privacidad.</p>
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42 changes: 42 additions & 0 deletions es/articulos/index.html
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<a href="/es/"><img id="header-img" src="/img/portrait.jpg"></a>
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<h3><a href="/es/">Netveldi</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>Matthías Ragnarsson</li>
<li><a href="mailto:matt@netveldi.com">matt@netveldi.com</a> (<a href="/netveldi_email_key.asc">PGP</a>)</li>
</ul>
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<li><a href="/es/articulos">Artículos</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/straumer">Código</a></li>
<li><a href="/es/acerca-de-la-pagina">Acerca de la página</a></li>
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<li><a href="/articles">English</a></li>
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<h1>Artículos</h1>
<code>2024-09-18</code>: <a href="/es/articulos/software-libre-es-numero-uno">Software libre es número uno</a>
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