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Building the Internet Barn

In the early 80's computers were still called "personal" computers to distinguish them from the large computers owned by businesses. Most software, though the term "programs" was more common", were written by people for their own use on their computer. Sometimes people would share them with friends most likely met through a computer club. It was also common to type in programs that were printed in computer magazines. It seems archaic now, but there wasn't a better way to distribute programs at the time.There were very few commercial programs available, only word processors and spreadsheets and not many of those. The idea of paying for something that wasn't physical and tangible seemed strange. Soon, though, the best programs cost money and the early camaraderie of computer hobbyists took a back seat to the desire to be paid for what was now a profession and not a hobby.That camaraderie didn't disappear, though, and when the internet blossomed in the early 90's, one of the its first uses was to allow people to collaborate and create software that was ever more powerful and useful. Not surprisingly, most of the software used to run the internet was developed by these people and was (and is) freely available to anyone.There are a number of names for this free software, but the most common one is "Open Source." The term comes from the fact that the "source code". Source code are the commands that guys like me write. They are converted to "machine code" that the computer executes. If you want to add something new to a program, you need access to the source code so you can add new things to it. Open Source means that the source code you need to do this is available, or "open" to anyone.And, like the barn raisings of yesteryear, many people contribute a small part to make it work. A board here, a shovel of cement there, and soon it all adds to something useful. The more that is added, the more useful it becomes and, unlike a real barn, everyone can use and benefit from it.The software that delivered the web page you're reading now to your computer (called a webserver) is called Apache. It is the most common webserver on the internet. You can go to apache.org, download and install it on you're own computer, if you really want to. Not that you would want to, and it takes a bit of effort to learn how to do so, but, if you wanted to, you could...for free.There are thousands of free programs out there besides Apache. Over the next few weeks, I'll be telling you about some of them. Some that may save you some money, or help you do something more easily, or do the things you already do faster. Some are better than their commercial counterparts, some are not, but you may find them "good enough" especially considering that they are free.The software I'm suggesting this week is called Open Office. If you can justify the expense of purchasing a word processor or spreadsheet like Microsoft Office, you will likely find that Open Office does everything you need and more. Even if you need to share documents with others using Microsoft Office, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.If you already have and use Microsoft Office, and extensively share and edit documents with others, then it's probably not for you. However if you have a computer want to do some writing, or create presentations, I think you'll be surprised, even amazed. It's free, and you can get it for you Windows PC, or your Mac, and Linux. And if you write in Russian, or Norwegian, or any of many other languages...well...that's no problem either.You can get it at http://www.openoffice.org/.There are many more and I'll talk about another one next week.