Patrick Masson (@massonpj) is currently serving as the General Manager for the Open Source Initiative after working within higher education IT for over twenty years, ranging in roles from Programmer Analyst at UCLA, to Chief Technology Officer in the University of Massachusetts' Office of the President.Patrick also teaches within the College of Computing and Information at the State University of New York at Albany on subjects related to open source software.Patrick has worked to promote the awareness and adoption of open source throughout his career, serving on the Jasig Foundation's Board of Directors, and is currently on the Apereo Foundation's Advisory Council. He is the co-founder and current chair of the EDUCAUSE Constituency Group on Openness and author of the Openness Index.
Authored Comments
I'll admit the first reason I adopted Linux in the mid 90's (and open source software generally) was due initially to cost. I wanted to redirect money spent on software to buy better hardware. However today, ironically, I've found I actually don't need the latest/greatest super-machine as Linux and open source applications run so well on mid-range computers and even older laptops/desktops. This highlights a key value for me with open source software: it breaks the hardware upgrade cycle, where a new OS requires more powerful hardware, which opens up headroom for more resource intensive software, which...
As an end user, I've come to realize open source software is simply better software: it's more reliable, stable, and safe. The community-driven development model, ensures not only that bugs/issues are addressed, but that the features and functionality developed are in line with what users actually need and use--no need for bloatware, that only muddles the user experience, when you don't need to justify a version upgrade (and payment). Open source software can focus on delivering innovation rather than pushing upgrades.
Forced upgrades is another reason I appreciate open source software--there are none. I can choose to update or even migrate on my schedule and for my reasons, not when the company tells me to.
As a developer/contributor, I like the community of collaborators open source creates. Sure there are many communities supporting and working with proprietary software: what a bunch of chumps. The time and energy I put forward in a project is returned directly back to me in multiples, and for all the right reasons. These returns aren't not just in software functionality/features, but in: knowledge (I've learned more through open source software and communities than any other medium throughout my career--technology, project management, community development, etc.), community (my very best friends are and those I respect most as technologists, engineers, developers, designers, etc. are from the open source projects I've worked with).
These are only a few reasons why I prefer open source software, a few years back I created the "The 'Ultimate' Benefits of Open Source List": https://pmasson.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/the-ultimate-benefits-of-open-… which includes all of the reasons I like Linux and open source software.
Thanks for the article, I was wondering if someone could address the apparent conflict in OpenToonz's license as posted to their GitHub repository (https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/blob/master/LICENSE.txt) and the Terms of Use, as documented on the OpenToonz download page: https://opentoonz.github.io/e/download/opentoonz.html
Thanks.