The first version of this text was adapted from "Free Software in Education: Is it a Viable Alternative?" by Xavier Amatriain and Dai Griffiths, presented at IMAC 2005

Probably the most widely used application in education, and beyond, is Microsoft Office. This proprietary package is used by staff, faculty and learners alike. A number of Free applications exist that substitute particular components in the package. For instance, Abiword (http://www.abisource.com/) is a solid replacement for Microsoft Word; Gnumeric (http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/). can substitute Microsoft Excel quite well;. MagicPoint (http://member.wide.ad.jp/wg/mgp/) is a replacement for Microsoft Powerpoint; and TotalRekall is a reasonable substitute for Microsoft Access, though rather complicated to install in its Free version. There is, however, a Free package which substitutes for the whole of Microsoft Office (except for Access, included only in Microsoft's Professional edition): OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/). This is a complete suite that can be used to edit text documents, work with spreadsheets or prepare overhead projections. The package is very robust, stable, and comprehensive and many new features are planned to be added in the short term. The user interface is so similar to that in Microsoft Office that the learning curve for an MS Office user is almost non-existent. Furthermore, OpenOffice has been translated to a many languages, including some not available for Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is a cross-platform application that can be installed in both GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows. Another set of tools of general use, but also important in education, are the various internet services including web browsers and e-mail clients. There are many Free tools in this area but Mozilla is of particular interest. Netscape gave this Free version to the community and has now announced that the proprietary version is soon to be discontinued. The Mozilla package includes a web browser, an e-mail client and a basic webpage editor. The lighter Firebird version includes only the web browser. The Mozilla web browser and e-mail client is more secure and technologically advanced than Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Outlook Express. In scientific or technological education it is very common to use mathematical packages such as Matlab. Octave (http://www.octave.org/doc/octave.html) is a good Free substitute which is used in many research institutions, and lacks only some Matlab toolboxes which are not included in the regular version. For graphics a number of applications can be recommended. The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) is a graphics and photograph editor which is very similar to Photoshop, and is even more advanced in some specific functionalities. For drawing diagrams and vector graphics Dia (http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~horkana/dia/) and Xfig (http://www.xfig.org/) can be used as substitutes of Microsoft Visio. Many other Free tools can be used in education including some very advanced applications published as Free software by universities, or educational/recreational software for small children, such as TuxPaint (http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/). Two examples of applications which are only available as Free Software are LaTeX (http://www.latex-project.org/ ) and Emacs (http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html). The former is a complete environment for generating professional quality texts for publishing, and it includes tools for handling bibliographies or a large collection of publishing styles. LaTeX is even required by some international publishing companies when handing in manuscripts. Emacs is a very well-known tool, developed and maintained by Richard Stallman. It is a very advanced text editor that has tools for editing different formats such as LaTeX or html. Finally, a number of Free Software e-learning environments have now been developed, and 48 are listed in (S Leslie, OpenSourceCourseManagementSystems. 2004, EdTechPost.).

A Word on formats

One of the fundamental problems related to the use of proprietary software is that of file formats, which is probably one of the main factors in the emergence software monopolies. Although most Free applications are now capable of opening proprietary formats (following substantial development effort), nevertheless, when we send someone a proprietary document (e.g. a Microsoft Word file), we are telling them to use the same application (see http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html). Additionally, because the file format is not known, we cannot be sure of what information is encoded in it. The file could, for example, be attaching personal information without our consent. The problem is that in many important application areas, such as editing formatted text, there are no standard formats, and this is a need which international standardization organizations such as ISO could address with advantage. So what formats can be used in place of a Microsoft Word file? A first alternative is an ASCI text file, and although in a text file all formatting is lost, this is the best format for many applications. Many people are used to attaching Microsoft Word files for simple texts that could well be included in the body of the mail or as a separate text attachment, which is also much smaller. If on the other hand, it is important to keep the format for a text file, one has to decide if it is to be editable. If this is not necessary then a Free format such as postscript or PDF may be used (although the latest versions of PDF are not Free). If the text file is to be editable a good option is html, which is Free and highly efficient. It is, of course, also possible to use a Free format related to an application such as Open Office. In this case it is true that we force receivers to use a particular application that they may not have, but this is clearly better than using a proprietary application, as the receiver can download the Free application. Finally if what a Free editable professional format for publishing is required, LaTeX is the best choice. This should have been the case, for instance, in the template of this conference, and offering only a Microsoft Word format has forced this author install the software specifically to write this paper. Another area in which formats are important is the Internet. We have already mentioned that there are many different Free web browsers, but the truth is that it is not always easy to browse the internet with some of them. The main reason is that many web pages do not using standard html code, but rather code extended with some proprietary additions. This is particularly worrying as Internet is supposed to promote free access to information and now it turns out that this information can only be accessed for an application belonging to a particular company. The case of Macromedia Flash is also a direct attack on free access to information (http://mdcc.cx/rants/swf-considered-harmful.html) although it has to be admitted that there is still no clear Free alternative to it. When browsing the Internet we must demand the right to access any web page through any browser, and punish companies that force the use of a particular one (usually Microsoft Internet Explorer) by not using their services.

A possible route map to the adoption of Free Software

When deciding whether to adopt Free Software for an institution it should be remembered that this is not an "all or nothing" decision. Free Software can be approached carefully in order to lessen the fear factor. We now propose a route map to go from an "all proprietary" to an "all Free" situation in small steps that will minimize the sense of sudden novelty and insecurity. This guidelines are intended to help both institutions and individuals that are willing to support and use Free Software, but are afraid of doing so through a sudden "revolution" and would rather think of it as a "transition". Before describing the route map, we need to respond to users who ask 'Will I be able to do everything I can do in my "all proprietary" environment when I reach the "all Free" environment?' The short answer is 'yes'. The long answer is there is a Free alternative for almost 100 percent of proprietary software (excluding games), including of course common applications such as office suites or internet browsers. In general terms, the state and features of these alternatives is comparable to the proprietary applications. Nevertheless, one should recognize that in some instances certain features and functionality that will have to be given up. Should this be the case then this must be balanced against the advantages which we have described above, and the availability of Free Software of some particular applications which are not available in proprietary environments. We now outline the proposed route for an average user who currently works with Microsoft Windows and uses no Free Software.

Step 1: First contact with Free Software The first step we propose is to install Free alternatives to those applications we use the most, so as to provide an initial contact with Free Software. The same operating system can be used, and there is no need to get rid of any current applications, just to add the new ones and progressively start using them. This does not require much effort from the user. It is probable that the most used applications are Microsoft Office and the Internet browser, and if so a good start would be to install the Windows version of both OpenOffice and Mozilla.

Step 2: All applications with a Free alternative By continuing with the process of substitution, users should reach the point where most, if not all, the applications they use have a Free alternative in the system. An effort is required to use the Free versions whenever possible so as to become used to them.

Step 3: Installing GNU/Linux The next step is to decide on which GNU/Linux distribution best fits the users needs (see previous section) and install it on a separate partition or hard-drive in the system. In this way, using Lilo or similar software, a dual booting machine can be configured, offering the user a choice of booting in GNU/Linux or Windows. A good option at this point is to have a third disk partition where all data that should be accessible from any of the two operating systems is kept. The newly installed GNU/Linux partition should have all the various Free applications that were previously installed on Microsoft Windows, so as to minimize the sensation of novelty and keep work practices stable. Again, the user should make an effort to launch GNU/Linux whenever possible.

Step 4: An all-Free environment Having reached the situation described in 6.3, it is a matter of time before the user is ready to switch to an all-free situation. Free Software under GNU/Linux can then be used nearly all the time, leaving the Microsoft Windows partition only for very exceptional cases such as writing a paper for a conference that only provides Microsoft templates.