I have been using linux since 1995, started with a slackware distro in a 486. Since then I have been using free-open software for all my work/developments. I am convinced that open software in our global village, with strong links, helps to achieve the most flexible, tested and developed applications, with large interconnected users communities which at the same time are involved in the development. Thinking in scientific computing, one could compare the history of matlab and of python.

I wonder why every time I buy a laptop I have to pay for an operative system which is not useful to me. Consumers should have the freedom to buy/install the OS at the moment of buying a computer. The big business of Microsoft has not been to produce good innovative products that people choose because of their quality, but to sign contracts with computer producers and to have complete close document formats that guarantee consumers need to buy their software applications not because of a choice but an obligation. Why the goverments are more interested in defending the mark rights of Microsoft software than defending the right of consumers (to buy the SO they want with a laptop for instance)?

I am an activist against official documents in word or excel formats which are registered/non-portable formats. Even for windows/word users is a pain, if you do not have the right version the documents are not possible to read. Even worse, sometimes the document formats are completely messed in different computers using the same word version. Public institutions should incorporate only open portable formats in their official forms. Regrettably pdf format is also not anymore portable, since Adobe has decided not to support their pdf reader in linux, and the rest of the readers do not deal with XFA forms.

This does not mean I am against tech companies or software development companies, but the way in which they have enslaved to customers around the world should be inadmissible in the ethical-moral world we should aim and pursue for our kids. Just looking at the (irrational) prices of the companies and the life of their executives is a clear signal of creating big inequality and so human degradation. On the other hand, I am quite optimistic when one sees initiatives as GNU and openai please do support these kind of projects.

As much as you can avoid spending money on these tech companies. A good place to read on the bads of commercial software and on supporting for free open software is in Richard Stallman page:

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