I recently posted a review of Serif Software’s PhotoPlus image editing software. The responses to the article were interesting in that each commenter brought up a different piece of software that they loved to use and that didn’t cost them any money to get rolling with. Free software. For parents living on a shoe-string budget, anything you can get for free can be helpful. When it comes to free software, though, free doesn’t always mean the same thing. For those interested, here’s a quick primer in the world of Free Software.

Free as in Beer

When I go to Stephanie from ispeakfilm’s house, I inevitably end up wandering into the “man room” for drinks with Shaggy, her husband. Unlike our trips to the local pub, beer at Shaggy’s house is free. Shaggy buys it, and I drink it. Yes, you can always say that there’s no such thing as a free beer, but I’m not paying a cent when I’m drinking his liquor. That works for me.

How does this apply to free software? Some software that’s labeled “free” can be considered “Free, as in beer.” You don’t have to spend money on it, and for the most part you don’t have to worry about licenses or how you use the software. Often times, a for-profit company will release free software to entice users into using their more expensive software. They’ll release demo or older versions to get you hooked. With this kind of software, you’ll almost always getting a limited version, but who cares – it’s free!

The nice thing about this kind of situation is that there’s a company backing up the software. Even if it’s free, the usually still have a phone number you can call when you’ve got problems. There’s usually a manual, a website, and some helpful tips on how to make the most of the software. Also, because the software is backed by a commercial entity, you can usually assume that the software has been checked for bugs before it’s released. That’s not always the case, but it you might as well assume it.

The problem with this kind of software is obvious – it’s usually limited or old and the full package usually costs quite a bit. That’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s usually the case. Sometimes, if the software is newer, the company who made it fills the program with advertisements to take care of their development costs. Think AOL Instant Messenger. These can be irritating, making using the software a pain. Another problem is that the licenses for this kind of software usually limit what you can do with it. If you’re just using the program for stuff at home, you’re fine, but the minute you use it for work, you’re now violating the license and, depending on your local laws, you could be doing something illegal. Sometimes, copying this free software for a friend can be illegal, an odd reality in this day and age.

Programs that fit into this category include PaintShop Pro’s Demo, Serif’s PhotoPlus and Photoshop LE (you sometimes get this with a scanner or printer).

Free as in Speech

Over the last ten years, a movement in the software industry has been growing. It’s been fueled by hobbyists, professional programmers and companies looking to get rid of the restrictions that have been placed on software. This movement, often called Open Source or FOSS (Free Open Source Software) creates software using a collaborative process, opening every part of the software up to a community of developers and users, and does so with the intent of creating software that costs nothing to download and use and that comes with no (or very few) restrictions.

With this model, you no longer have to worry about using a piece of software at home and then taking it to work. You can use it for free anywhere. You can copy it for a friend and not worry about the police knocking down your front door. You can put it on your website and make it available to friends and family. It’s free, as in speech.

One of the coolest things about this way of building software is that you can usually get versions of the software for any operating system out there and it works about the same. Use MacOS at home and Windows XP at work? There’s almost always versions for both that have the same look and feel across the board. The reason for this is that the source code for the software is also “free” and “open” so anyone can make a version to work on any system. Cool!

Why do people build this software if they’re not getting paid? More often than not, they do it because they love working on projects like this. They do it for fun. Sometimes students work on these projects to learn how to work on a team. Sometimes older programmers do it to keep their skills honed. And sometimes, when people are nice, there are even funds that come in for these projects through grants or personal donations, and usually someone gets some money for their time.

What this means, though, is that because people are working on these projects as a labor of love, sometimes they only work on the stuff that interests them. If there’s a feature that users want to see but the developers don’t care about it, there’s no reason for the developers to jump in and make it happen. Sometimes the most obvious features get missed, like in the case of Gimp, CMYK color (the way colors are specified in print – kind of a must for graphic designers and print shops). And because of the collaborative approach to development, sometimes the different parts of a FOSS project don’t mesh well together. In Inkscape (a fantastic drawing program), there are times when I can’t copy part of an illustration to another part, simply because the program refuses to do it.

Software in this category includes The Gimp, Paint.NET and Inkscape.

Free Software Means Trade-Offs

The reality is that using free software often means having to make trade-offs. Does it matter if the software you’re using is limited? Does the program you’re using need to have all of the bells and whistles you can imagine, or is it good enough to have the basics? Do you need to be able to share the software with friends? Do you need to have it work on both a Mac and Windows machine or is Windows enough?

Every free program comes with these kinds of issues, and when choosing the right image editing software for you and your family, it’s important to understand that these issues may in fact affect what you’re able to do with the program.

In the next few weeks I’ll be posting some more articles about different free software packages and I’ll sometimes use the terms “Free, as in beer” and “Free, as in speech” to help give my reviews some context. Your assignment, for the moment, is to look at the software you use and figure out, if it didn’t cost any money, if it’s “Free, as in beer,” “Free, as in speech,” or maybe both. Have fun!