Why I use Free Software
This has been followed up by: Why I got into Veganism, I find food habits at Free Software events weird.
People in general may have different reasons for choosing to use Free Software, some may use it for the price, others because of pragmatic reasons, simply put it’s the best tool for the job. Others may choose it for ethical reasons.
I didn’t get into Free Software for any of the said reasons above, I got into Free Software because it seemed different and fun. The free price point is what made it possible for me as a teenager to play around with it as I did.
Over time it became less about fun and games to install and play with operating systems and more about a tool, a tool that I could rely on and learn from and use for day to day at work.
During the transition to start relying on Free Software as a tool I also started to learn about the ethical aspects, which completely got me hooked and is now my primary reason to keep using Free Software. These ethical aspects have pushed me in the direction to find software that is Free Software that match my needs, so it also happens to be, for me, simply the best tool for the job.
Over the years I’ve spent quite some time on thinking about the ethical aspects and have concluded that I find Free Software to be the only viable choice in terms of respecting users freedom and choice to study, improve and learn from software and how their computer works. Which makes sense since that’s the reasoning for how it was founded.
For example: I find Free Software to be one of the best ways to close, or at least reduce the size of the digital divide. It may not do it on hardware, but every bit helps.
So to conclude, in my opinion, all the reasons stated here makes Free Software the only acceptable choice for people who care about human rights and treating people fairly. Therefore, Free Software is humane and inclusive software since it’s mostly free of charge. This helps it to at least to attempt to break economic barriers and income classes.
This happens to go hand in hand with the ethical aspects of Veganism. This is sadly a connection I didn’t get until many years later. This is in a follow up post: Why I got into Veganism.