Why Does FOSS Matter to a Student

You might be wondering “That’s cool and all, but why should i care for such freedoms?”. Well there is a few reasons. To name some:

1. Educational Freedom

When software is open, you can learn from it. Majority of people use “magical” locked down boxes that feeds them content and convenience. We should understand what we use and why we use them, and we don’t need to be professional software engineers to achieve this. We want all people that use a piece of software to understand how it does what. This is particularly valuable in a university setting where learning how things work should be encouraged, not restricted.

2. Practical Skills for Your Future

Working on FOSS projects gives you marketable experience and skills. While we don’t encourage this to be the only reason for working on FOSS, it is a benefit of it. You will learn to use at least one programming language to use, and more importantly, git, the most common tool used for developing software when working with multiple people. You will learn to understand systems from inside out and train your brain to work in alternative ways, unlocking new neuron paths. Beyond making you easier to employ, these skills will help you become smarter and more social.

3. Independence from Corporates

With proprietary software, you’re dependent on a company’s decision about pricing, features, platform support, and most importantly, privacy policies. To use and develop FOSS is rather more ethical than propriety software solutions because it’s transparent. You can verify what the software does. It is collaborative too so knowledge and labour is not hoarded. Everyone can contribute. FOSS is also designed for people, not for profit. This ensures that all of FOSS is designed for you, the user specifically. Since there is no profit incentive, there is also no reason to implement potentially dangerous technologies (especially for students) such as content recommendation algorithms, user retention methods, and removing user agency which leads to problems like doomscrolling, pessimism, attention deficits, and more. We also know historically that proprietary software was used by states to control and spy on people all around the world. If you’re particularly interested in these issues, click here.