FAQ
Here we List out different questions asked to us by college going students, and possible and given answers.
Is Free Software Secure than proprietary software?
As to how is Free Software more secure than proprietary software even though the source code of Free Software is available for everyone to edit whereas the source code for proprietary software is not available?
Imagine two huge buildings. One wants to rent one for an office. Both are in a place where earthquakes and terrorist acts are common. For one, he is given a complete building plan, clearly marking all the exits and entrances and the complete wiring etc of the building showing all maintainence passageways, ducts etc. For the other, he is told that no plans are available or can be shown because terrorists might get access to them - but since the details of the building are top secret, no terrorist can misuse the details. Regarding wiring and things, they say, we cannot give you the details, but give us the ends of the wires and we will connect them for you - same for exhaust pipes etc etc. Which building will he choose?<ref>Kenneth Gonsalves' explanation in ILUG Chennai</ref>
Say the encryption algorithms all of them are open , but the keys are the ones private. But still they are good at keeping the transaction secure.
Similarly , There are two different concepts , data and code. Security in most sense is how safe the data can be , and that needs intelligent code , more the number of participants and more trial and error and more possible commits and development , better the code.Open source achieves just that :) And explain to him his data will still be confidential and its not 'open data' :) <ref>Antano Solar's explanation in ILUG Chennai</ref>
How can I make money using FOSS ?
So assuming I develop a cutting edge software which has numerous monetary scope, how do I earn money or make it profitable while keeping it FOSS.?
Possible answers (one or mix of more, depending on type of audience):
There are many business models around free software (we are more interested in free software part of FOSS, whereas OSS part of FOSS has different motivations than us) and before we even start I think there is another thing I want to point out about how you look at software development. Almost all non-trivial software is built using other software, at least a programming language compiler or interpreter and when you talk about free Software, you also get to use a lot of existing free software tools and libraries, so usually it is never your effort alone that gets you a useful software. Also, a lot of free software is built by a lot of people collaborating and not a single person, many of those who build free software are passionate about it and not necessarily motivated by money. Some may be doing other jobs, some software, some teaching, or even we have a practicing medical doctor who contribute to free software in our own group.
Now with that aspect clarified, let's see how some people earn a living from free software, I think the oldest model used to be selling CDs when the internet was not very cheap. Then there was providing technical support and training for free Software, this is still a viable model. Companies like Red Hat, Canonical, Novell, JBoss[1] do this. With the profit they make from providing support and training, they also employ people to develop it further Then there is consulting and customization of free Software. There is also crowdfunding where users directly fund the developers or developers use platforms like Patreon and Liberapay where they receive donations from users.
There are also models like dual licensing and open core, where people are charged for combining a software with proprietary software or pay for extra features. Though, people don't generally like open core model.
Being a free software developer doesn't mean you can't charge a customer for our efforts. If there is a demand and if you are building a software to fill it, you can ask money for development. The proprietary business model is based on squeezing maximum profit from a product. I must say, if the focus is on profit, the free software model won't be able to provide as much as the proprietary model but that doesn't mean we won't get enough for our needs. There is always a moral/social contract element involved (intentional or non-intentional) in free software development.
How do I start contributing to FOSS?
Start using FOSS, Share/Blog what you found out (it works out of the box, you needed to tweak something to get it working...), Help others in mailing list, forums..., Write documentation, Request for features, Submit bugs, Try fixing some bugs ar adding new features... Here is a detailed guide.
What kind of an economic model does an entrepreneur look at when he starts out with free software?
RMS from an interview to The Hindu.
I want to ask you why that question is worth asking. First of all there are many people who don't have to make money. Importantly even if a person has to make a living, he doesn't have to make a living from everything he does.
Lots of people develop free software in their free time and there are people who have to make a living and they do make a living.
To jump from, this person is not rich and therefore has to work, to, this person can't write free software because he is not paid to write it, is an error.
There are over a million contributors to free software, a substantial fraction is getting paid and a majority are volunteers.
I suspect the reason people bring up this question of economics as a secondary detail is because they are labouring under the misconception that the free software community is impossible, unless the developers are getting paid.
Why contribute to Free Software?
What do I get by contributing to Free Software?
How do I organise a FOSS event in my campus?
Here is a detailed HOWTO, which will guide you through the steps involved in organising a FOSS event in your campus.
How do I form a local FOSS User Group?
We have prepared a set of guidelines which you can follow here
Why do we need to use glade when we can use Visual Studio ?
Don't you like to have an edge over others ? Microsoft is going to use what glade has been succesfully using[2] for long in its upcoming Windows vista[3] -- XML based interface for GUI which will be interpreted by a rendering engine. So while choosing glade you are ahead of those who chose Microsoft technologies like Visual Studio.
(More questions and answers to be added)