Issue:

Belief:

            Software is almost as old as computers.  The first time a computer was able to execute a sequence that wasn’t physically input by hand you could argue that it was running software.  After many years of computing the software industry has exploded.  No one in the civilized world can say that their lives aren’t affected daily by software.  There are many different types of software but two groupings have made themselves very distinct.  I am of course talking about commercial software vs. open source.  Commercial software is the stuff that you by at Best Buy from companies like Microsoft and Corel.  It usually is protected by patents and copy protection, asks you to register and can only be installed on one machine.  Unless you are incredibly talented or work for said corporation you will never see the code for these programs.  Open source programs are free to one and all to download off the internet, augment, and run.  Online communities have sprung up where people join forums and help each other out with bugs and fixes that they have discovered in the code.  Some of these programs you maybe familiar with such Linux, Drupal, Eclipse, and the Java core and basically anything that you can install on your computer that doesn’t require some sort of cracking software.

            The question is what you think is better.  I am going to put 3 choices in this vote because I honestly don’t know; on the one hand developers work very hard to make quality software.  They probably studied even harder to get their degrees.  They deserve to have their intellectual property protected and receive compensation for their labor and mental anguish.  On the other hand open source had various merits.  The communities that form link millions more minds to the project than any corporation has the resources to higher.  People who can’t afford software can still download something that could help them improve their place in the world.  It is true it can be hard to configure sometimes but once it works it is so worth it.

            So this is a pretty easy one.  If you think it is ridiculous that you have to pay money for software vote I like open source.  If you think that software is a product like any other that should be purchased at a fair market price vote I like commercial software.  If you don’t care, have no idea what I’m talking about, or see the validity of both vote I believe these two can live together in harmony.