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Keeping open and public control over technology and information is
critical for an open society. Making sure that everyone has access to
technology is critical as well. This is why open source software is so
important. What many people don't know is that there are many excellent
open source alternatives to expensive products, that in some cases are
actually superior to their private source counterparts. Not only does
open source provide "free" software, but the open source community tends
to be much more focused on standards and ensuring compatibility. Unlike
private software developers, who have an interest in making their
products proprietary so, for example, that document formats can only be
read by their own software, the open source community works to create
open and well documented standards that make information sharing easier
and more reliable.
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views since 1/20/2005