Welcome to The FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Blog

I will be using this blog to feature open source software that has served my needs as an alt ac, digital humanist, and educational technologist.  The purpose is to create a resource for students, faculty, and staff interested in open source software.

open_sores

 

I’m not going to tackle a bunch of FOSS rhetoric.  The concepts of “free” and “open source” are often foundations of intense, passionate debate.  I prefer to come at FOSS from a pragmatic standpoint.

I will consider software to be ‘Free and Open Source’ if it…

  1. …is free to download/install
  2. …openly provides its source code

And that’s it, any package with those two attributes is up for discussion on this site.

But... Free Software is so much more than that! Also don't call it open source!
But… “Free Software” is so much more than that! Also don’t call it open source!  Oh hey, look, I just found some delicious toe-jam in my feet!

 

Whatever you say Richard Stallman.  Like I said before, there are people out there that have far more involved definitions of FOSS.  I don’t plan to dwell on ideology in this space. I just assert that as an educational platform, open source deliverables make it possible for anyone to analyze, emulate, and consider the totality of software, the production of software, and the capabilities of software.