Creating Alternatives to Commercialized Computing

Invisible to most people outside the worlds of programming or high-tech industry, the FOSS community is committed to assuring autonomy and freedom in the virtual world. Instead of allowing a massive push for capitalist models of production to run the Internet, these high-tech artists have developed an entire alternative system of internet activity and existence that is both free from commercial influence and cost in the software realm, and independent of government interference, two aspects that are most likely interdependent. It is now possible to build a computer of parts, install an operating system like Linux and an accompanying windowing system such as GNOME and perform nearly all the same tasks that can be done on a Windows XP computer without ever paying for software. Office suites, photo manipulation systems, chat, email and web browsing can all be done without incurring the increasing burden of software costs or complicated licensing schemes. Perhaps more importantly, activists, artists, NGOs and development specialists can now use the tools provided by computer technology without giving any of their money or support to monopolies like Microsoft with whom they often feel a large political conflict. On a very basic level the FOSS community has provided an alternative to capitalist economics and commercialism in the world of computing, and done so successfully. So successfully in fact, that many other fields are following in their path.