As far back as I can remember I have always liked to take things apart and put them back together.  This inner desire to understand how things worked was very intriguing to me.  It all started at a very young age, unscrewing any electronic component (calculators, radios, etc) I could find around the house and then putting it back together.  This was taken to another level once my parents bought me my very own computer in 9th grade; a Pentium 200MMX with 64MB EDO RAM.  I was thrilled, and I began to play with my new toy day and night learning the intricacies of the system.

All of this excitement was brought to a sudden halt once I decided to explore how this software actually worked on this new system I had just received.  I was amazed that I could not see the source code of any of the programs I had installed.  Everything was hidden behind a pretty exterior shell that read “Microsoft Windows”.  I was eager to learn, but I was being held back; not only by this pretty exterior shell, but also by the exorbitant cost of software associated with this operating system.  A cost which was way out of any 9th grader’s budget!

I was very upset.  Eager to learn about systems, networking and programming I started to research alternatives, and came across free open source software.  The first project I came across was a popular project entitled “Linux”; a Unix-like operating system which is not only free, but also contains open source code and development allowing all underlying source code to be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone.  I was ecstatic!  Not only did I find software that was within my budget (free), I also found software that had it’s source fully available for me to study and learn.

After installing Linux for the first time, I was amazed at the plethora of other free software packages that were packaged along side of it, all with source available.  I could edit the software, make it better, add my own functionality, the possibilities were endless!  It was these free software packages that allowed me to explore and actually learn networking, programming and system administration.  Without these free open source software packages, I would have never been as interested in the computer industry as I am today.

It is very apparent that open source software promotes education and innovation, while closed source software stifles it.  As the great Albert Einstein once said:

“Example isn’t another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.”

And closed source software is a very poor example…

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