In this week's lecture we talked about the use of freeware (free software) that can be used on operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac. Many programs that we have on our computers are expensive, like Office or Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes these programs can come with the operating system, though most of the time they have to be purchased separately. However, the internet has several websites that offer free alternative software programs thatare similar to those that you would pay hundreds ofdollars for.
There were many freeware programs that were talked about in the lecture, Mozilla Firefox was one of them. It's a very one popular freeware program that is used. It is an alternative to Internet Explorer a default web browser on Windows or Apple Mac OSX default browser Safari. Another freeware program mentioned was Gimp. Gimp is a free photo editor similar to that of iphoto what would be used on Apple. There were many other freeware programs that were discussed.
Linux an alternative operating system was mentioned as well in the lecture and we were given a challenge to trial it for 10 days.I know several people who use this system and say it is alright but I certainly won't be taking the dive and trying it out. Several videos were also shown in the lecture one about Stephen Fry endorsing the Linux Operating System and theother was about the organisation Creative Commons.
Tute Exercise- Creative Commons
Creative Commons founded by Lawrence Lessig in 2001 is a U.S based organisation that is aimed at distributing creative works by organisations or individuals. Creative commons allows other people to build on and share the work of others without infringing on copyright laws. This certainly would be beneficial for a student at university, say in the area of scientific research, where a person may have made progress ona certain subject and they can further add to it with out infringing on the other person previous work.
Here are some pieces of work that are under Creative Commons licensing: The of Honour of Knights a novel by Stephen J Sweeney, Sita Sings the Blues a 2D animated film by American Artist Nina Paley Sita Sings the Blues Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts: I-IV.
This journal article Insiders Guide to Creative Commons by Michael Baumann mainly discusses the legal aspects of Creative Commons. Baumann in the article also talks about the history of it and the general concept of Creative Commons. He makes a comparison of Creative Commons against Copyright Laws.
Portable Apps (Applications) is computer software that runs by portable devices such as a thumb drive (usb stick), CD-ROM and Floopy Disc. The software is run via the portable device without actually installing the software to the computer. This could be very useful for a person who wants to use their program(s) or applications on public computers like internet cafe's where they can't install the software to the computer.
Here is a video that talks about and gives a further insight into creative commons:
Tute Spark- Free Software
For a few days I decided to use Mozilla Firefox, the freeware web browser designed for Windows and Mac. I found this piece of free software to be fantastic. I own a Mac and have been using the default web browser Safari for several months. I found Mozilla to be much more faster than Safari. It also has more features than Apple's default internet browser. I use to use this program when I owned a Windows operating system, because it was the first web browser that had used and introduced the concept of tab browsing. I will continue to use this freeware, and I strongly recommend it to other people who want a change from the boring old default browsers.
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