Happy Software Freedom Day!

One of my favorite things that go along with running this website is getting the opportunity to explore all sorts of free software, including open source software.  It never ceases to amaze me that such high quality software is available to anyone (non-commerical) at no cost to the user. 

Unfortunately, there are still many people that don’t know about all the free software available.  As a result, September 15 was designated as Software Freedom Day, in the hopes of educating more people about all of the free alternatives available to them.   According to their official website, Software Freedom Day is described as:

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Our goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about of the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business — in short, everywhere! The non-profit company Software Freedom International coordinates SFD at a global level, providing support, giveaways and a point of collaboration, but volunteer teams around the world organize the local SFD events to impact their own communities.

I think this holiday is a great way to improve the exposure of free software.  If you weren’t already aware, I have attempted to collect some of the best free and open source software available today in my post Best of: Free Software.   It is broken down into categories for easy reference, and receives updates every few weeks in the hope that it stays a valid reference. 

I encourage anyone who is spending money on software to support their free and open source alternatives by at least giving them a chance to win you over.  You’d be surprised, as many are actually better!  If you are happy with the software, blog about it, tell your friends and family, and do whatever you can to support free and open source software.