Free software

and its implications in education

Leon Kinsella

2017-10-7

1 Introduction

Free software is a hidden issue to many today especially within the educational system, the following was written with the hope to educate the school on the issue and find a solution. When many people hear the term free software their first thought is that the argument is that soft ware should exist with out cost, this issue stems from a lack of definition in the English language, when discussing free software one should think free as in free speech.

1.1 Definitions

Free software was first announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman in an email it was later defined by 4 essential freedoms

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.

The freedom to study how the program works, and change is so it does your computing as you wish.

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.

The freedom to distribute modified versions to others.

1.2 Economic consequences of free software

Many people feel that freedoms two and three makes free software incompatible with modern mone- tary systems as it would hinder the profitability of software. This has shown to be false many times, Richard Stallman was the author of Emacs (a free editor) made an income from selling it despite that any one could obtain it for free, on top of this the European Union commissioned report on displacement of sales caused by unauthorized copying found little evidence of sales being lost to unauthorized copying, a direct quote “In general, the results do not show robust statistical evidence of displacement of sales by online copyrights infringements. That does not necessarily that unau- thorized copying has no effect but only that the statistical does not prove with sufficient reliability that there is an effect.” showing that free software can exist with all software with out major effects on income to software developers.

2 Importance

Free software has many factors that make it important society today. I will relate to the importance of each freedom.

2.1 Freedom to use

Freedom zero states that users of software can run software as the wish, for any purpose. This freedom is essential as it ensures that ones computer works for them not the other way around. Freedom zero means that students are able to use software with out restrictions of their studies, through method such as DRM. Most people know DRM as the thing that etops them from playing DVD that they bought overseas. Students are often denied this freedom , instead they work for their computers and their computers true owners, corporations such as Apple, Google, Oracle, Amazon and Microsoft. Software used by students is often controlled by corporations for example; in 2009 Amazon kindle users noticed that their copies of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ disappeared, the irony of this some how being lost by Amazon. Freedom zero ensure that students are able to use software as they wish.

2.2 Freedom to study

Freedom one states that one has the freedom to study and change how the program works. This freedom is essential to those who understand and are learning how software works and is made, such as students. Today majority of people learning programming are only able to study small programs as large programs do not allow the study of source code2 meaning today those entering the work force of software development are less capable meaning the software surrounding us today is of a lower quality despite being surrounded by more programs today than ever before for example software within our cars and banks. For this reason freedom one is essential not only for those who are able read code but for all of us in modern society. With freedom one, freedom zero is easily achievable as any software with DRM would be modified to lack it.Further more the restriction of what students are allowed to study, is antithetical to the purpose of a school.

2.3 Freedom to distribute

Freedom two states that one has the ability to redistribute exact copies of software to any one. As stated in the definition this is to help ones neighbour, this is to allow sharing of software to help one another. Sharing, some thing that is taught since early childhood is disallowed by most EULA’s3 signed by people, this freedom despite often seen as the least attainable is the most commonly performed, for example many people share access to payed account services such as Netflix and Spotify. This is freedom would allow schools to distribute software to students with out excessive monetary strain being placed on schools.

2.4 Freedom to modify

Freedom three states that one can distribute modified versions of software free of charge, this freedom requires the previous freedoms. This freedom allows for software to advance faster and gives back to the community. Many software projects utilises this freedom to increase productivity, for example Linux remains the safest kernel5as many people are able to look for vulnerabilities and then release modified version with them fixed making the software better for everyone. With this freedom students would be able to able to work together on class assessments to improve one another’s programs, also pre-existing software could be modified as to meet a schools needs.

3 Free software in schools and education

Schools put in efforts to ensure that students maintain their freedoms by protecting students from scrutinization due race, gender, sexuality or disabilities and holding numerous fundraising events to support charities that give members of these groups appropriate help how ever schools often fail to protect students from software that does not respect their freedoms. The following reasons outline why school should only teach free software.

3.1 Money

Schools often do not have enough money to provide students with everything they need and software is a major cost for most schools, with free software schools would not have to purchase any licences to distribute exact copies of the software to all students. School would also not need to navigate tricky licences.

3.2 Addiction

Some manufactures of non-free software may offer schools license to give students copies of software without cost, this is simply the companies using schools as a method of advertisement and make students dependent on their software. Students after graduation are no longer given cost free access to the software requiring them to purchase the software. This is an effective method of advertisement as students are incredibly likely to to purchase the non-free software so that they can continue to function as they did in school. By doing this schools are performing the opposite of their function, rather than making good, functional, independent citizens, they are instead creating citizens unable to function independently without a corporations software.

3.3 Learning

If all software within schools was free it would allow students to read the source code and learn how software works, if a students would wish to enter the world of software development the students with access to source code of large programs would have a much deeper understanding of programming than those taught in non-free software environments. Non-free software essentially tells students “The knowledge you want is secret – learning is forbidden”. This mentality and lack of free software in school only continues the “priesthood of technology”, which is the keeping the general public in the dark of how software and computers work, school should reject this as it is contrary to their roles to educate students.

3.4 Privacy

All lot of the non-free software utilised in schools collects users data, Google collecting search details and tracking users across the web with the chrome browser, additionally Microsoft’s windows 10 operating system uses telemetry to spy on what students and faculty are doing on their computers, we will likely never know what what this data is used for. The lack of concern by the schools for students privacy seen by the promotion of Google classroom and Microsoft OneNote may be overlooked by the school as a non-issue but just earlier this year students have been put in the way of harm when Edmodo leaked private details of users including passwords, names and schools of attendance. Non-free software often has this issue, major data leaks and privacy infringements are not a familiar sight in the realm of free software.

4 Ending

4.1 Solution

The solution to the issue of non-free software in schools can be a few simple changes such as moving school computers away from windows to a GNU/Linux-Libre operating system and moving from the Microsoft Office Suite to the Libre Office suite. The issue of work distribution can be fixed by allowing the use of email for submitting and receiving work. For more solutions the GNU website has a list of solutions6

4.2 Conclusion

In conclusion free software is a global issue that has major implications for educational institutions. The requirement to use non-free software such as Microsoft OneNote or Google Classroom simply to receive or hand in work is a major affront to the freedom of students and members of faculty. This often invisible issue can be solved in educational institutions by consideration into how important a students freedom is.

4.3 Further reading

If you wish to read further into the aspects of free software the free software foundation’s website as well as the GNU website has many essays about free software, the book ‘Free Software, Free Society’ by Richard Stallman is a collection of his essays on the issue of free software, this is sold by the Free Software Foundation in physical form or free of charge in the form of a PDF. More links and resources can be found at http://txti.es/fsaiiieframr