When looking for Free and Open Source Source Software an interesting world of Freeware, Shareware, Testware, Demoware, Tryware, and Buyware is opening up. I am just starting to explore it.

Let me look at the software that I am using for writing and posting this text: w.bloggar written by Marcelo Leal Limaverde Cabral. A nice piece of software with a simple and most likely selfwritten software license. It states that the software, as usual, comes with no warranty at all (who is BUYING things without warranty? You must be mad!). On the issue of open source the license states that: "It is prohibited to change any part of this SOFTWARE, including changes or eliminations of messages or windows. Reverse engineer (decompile) or disassemble of this SOFTWARE is prohibited." So, the software is proprietary software. On the other hand, there is no license fee (as far as I know), however at the same line there is nothing stated that you may share the software with your friends and/or colleagues. Interesting to read that Marcelo refers to a project BlogBuddy (http://blogbuddy.sourceforge.net/) that is published under the GNU/GPL license (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html). Here Marcelo got (stole?) his inspiration! BlogBuddy, contrary to w.blogger is very explicit: "blogBuddy is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. This means you are free to redistribute it modified or not." Clear and unambiguous. As a consequence of my goal to install a FOSS/Windows computer this means that I will get away with w.bloggar and install BlogBuddy (let's hope it is good).


When searching for software for my Windows machine, A world of eager young software developers and small companies is emerging all trying to convince you of the quality of the software. You can try it, sometime use it for longer periods, but in the end you are requested to pay (voluntary or not). What a difference with the FOSS world on Linux. They almost never ask you to pay, they ask you to participate in the development in order to get better products. It looks like the FOSS spirit has not inspired software development in the Windows World. Social Software Development, Free Software 4 All, the slogan of EACOSS (www.eacoss.org) is not the dominant paradigm. I hope I am mistaken.