Free Software (Part 3a: New Apps)

Update (February 27, 2012)

Almost four years after I first wrote this series of blog post, I found myself returning to them with the urge to update them with some of the latest developments.  I decided to combine all three posts into one wiki page that I’ll be able to keep current more easily as I make more connections regarding this huge and important topic.

I just installed a basic comment plugin to the wiki so feel free to comment there.

<<Part 2

Introduction

Last week, I explained that schools have special reasons to use free software:

• Free software generally costs less than proprietary software
• Free software and free file formats have better interoperability
• Free software promotes the spirit open inquiry
• Free software promotes ethical and social responsibility

I also introduced two ways in which I believe we can be addicted to proprietary software:

• We are “psychologically” addicted because learning to use different software (even if better) is time consuming, potentially boring, and inefficient (in a short term), so we tend to resist change.
• We are also “physically” addicted because a lot of the work that we’ve produced over the years might be saved in proprietary file formats that are inaccessible by free software. This creates a situation called “vendor lock-in” [1], where costumers don’t have a choice but to keep buying a specific product if they want to continue having access to their own work. For example, documents saved in Apple Pages format won’t open in Open Office (or in Microsoft Word for that matter). Thus switching to a completely free system may deny us access to our own archived work. It’s important not to confuse “free format” with “free software“, but both issues are intimately related in their philosophy.

This week, I’d like to present some of my own ideas on how to make the switch from proprietary to free software, and outline some of the steps to break the addiction. These ideas are based mostly on my own personal experience with being a Microsoft Windows user for almost 10 years, before switching to Apple for a few years, and then to GNU/Linux (for my personal computing) two years ago. I will describe the first two (of four) steps that I think should be followed to make the transition less painful. Although I think they should be followed in roughly this order, overlap between them is natural. They are:

1. Converting files to free formats using our current operating system and software.
2. Using free software alternatives that are (as much as possible) cross-platform and discontinuing proprietary software on our current operating system.
3. Switching to a GNU/Linux Operating System (with non-free drivers if needed) and using some of the same cross-platform applications as in Step 2.
4. Buying new hardware that supports free drivers, firmware, and file format.

You will notice that this specific order helps ensure that the “psychological” aspect and the “physical” aspect of the addiction are not experienced at the same time too much.

Step 1: Converting File Format

The first step should be to convert all our important files into an open file format [2] so that we can access them easily using free software. It is worth noting that although proprietary software usually use their own proprietary file formats (such as DOC for Microsoft Word), they sometimes use open and free formats as well. HTML, for example, is a free format that many proprietary software (such as Microsoft Explorer, or Apple Safari) use.

Although I believe that breaking the “physical” aspect of the addiction is much more labour intensive than breaking the “psychological” one, the former seems to feel less daunting than the latter so it should be done first. Below are a few examples of what the job might entail.

Office Documents:

One of the ways to convert our office documents to open formats is to use the original program (Microsoft Office or Apple iWork) to open our files and then “save as” (or “export”) to an OpenDocument file format. [3] For example:

• Text files should be saved as either ODT or RTF files instead of DOC or PAGES files.
• Spreadsheets should be saved as ODS or CSV files as opposed to XLS or NUMBERS.
• Presentations should be save as ODP or PDF files instead of PPT or KEYNOTE files.

One of the problems we will encounter is that heavy formating may not convert well. Thus, when the fancy appearance of a document is crucial, we should also exported it as a PDF file first. This ensures that it will continue to be printable and viewable exactly as we intended. It will not be editable, however.

Most of the time, the conversion can be done using the original proprietary software. In some cases, though, it may also be useful to use a special conversion software [4] or the free software alternative (such as OpenOffice [5][6]), which can sometimes (but not always) open proprietary format files. Obviously, new files should be saved as an OpenDocument file format directly, so that after enough of the old files have been converted, we can begin Step 2 of the liberation process.

Incidentally, there is also a new habit that we should develop to help others: We should never attach proprietary-formatted files such as DOC (MS Word) or PPT (MS Powerpoint) to our emails since doing this implies that the recipient should buy a copy of the software. Instead, we should email free-formatted files or their PDF output since these can be open by free software and proprietary software alike, thus giving our audience complete freedom. [7]

Multimedia Files

Converting multimedia files can be more tricky, because there are more choices. Because it is difficult to make a (wise) choice without understanding the situation, I’ll begin by giving a (hopefully) brief explanation of the different formats available. Beware: it is quite a messy situation!

Let’s start with sound files. There are three different types of sound file formats: [8]

1. Uncompressed: The data is stored in a way that is directly readable without trying to organize it in a way that is more compact. This is how traditional CD’s store data, which explains why only about 15 songs can be stored on a 700MB CD. Most uncompressed formats (like WAV for Windows and AIFF for Apple) are free.
2. Lossless Compression: The data is reorganized to save space, and the quality is preserved entirely. This is analogous to “zipping” a file. A good, free lossless compression codec is FLAC. [9]
3. Lossy Compression: The quality is degraded somewhat in order to compress the file even more. The most popular lossy compressed formats (like WMA and MP3) are proprietary. An excellent lossy compression algorithm is OGG Vorbis. [10]

Going off in a bit of a tangent, I found a pretty cool section on Wikipedia that “explains” how OGG Vorbis works (sort of):

“Vorbis uses the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) for converting sound data from the time domain to the frequency domain. The resulting frequency-domain data is broken into noise floor and residue components, and then quantized and entropy coded using a codebook-based vector quantization algorithm.” [11]

Doesn’t this just make you want to learn more math? I mean, pure cosine waves are pretty cool to start with. Now imagine playing with a “modified discrete cosine transform” to covert stuff from the “time domain to the frequency domain” and using a “codebook-based vector quantization algorithm” … Wow!

Anyway, back to the issue of converting our audio files… We’ll be faced with two problems: The first one is that every time a file is converted from a lossy format to another lossy format, the quality degrades. So, although converting our entire MP3 collection into OGG Vorbis is possible without too much trouble, our music will suffer some loss in quality. If we are about to compress audio files for the first time however, then we only have to worry about the second problem, which has to do with hardware.

Indeed, here’s a preview of Step 4: not all portable music players can play OGG Vorbis files. Some can, but iPods, for example, can’t. That’s why it’s important to choose good hardware…

For videos, it’s an even messier business. There are so many proprietary compression algorithms; it’s ridiculous. Fortunately, the free software movement suggests using only one format: The OGG [12] is the container format for the following codecs:

• Vorbis for lossy music
• FLAC for lossless music
• Speex for speech
• Theora for video

This is true unification of digital multimedia!

There’s a good section on our school documentation wiki about codecs [14]. It’s targeted at Mac users, but Windows users will also find a lot of relevant information (and GNU/Linux users don’t really have to worry about this anyways).

In General

Although office and multimedia files are probably the most obvious and numerous files we’ll need to convert, the list of file formats is much too long to be addressed separately, and so a general awareness of the problems should be kept in mind. Every time we are tempted to use a new piece of software, we should make sure that its product can be saved in an open file format. A program that only saves its product into a secret format enslaves us. [1] A program that saves its output to a free format gives us the freedom to use a different program if we wish to.

Step 2: Using Free Software on our Current OS

Now that most (but not all) of the hard work of converting our files is done, it’s time to (gradually) start facing our “psychological” addiction and begin using more and more free software alternatives, more and more often, even if it seems (at first) more complicated. I am definitively not advocating going cold turkey and switching to a completely free system all at once. Although some might find this a fun challenge, I’m guessing that most would probably find it much too frustrating. We will thus make small steps in the right direction instead of attempting a giant leap forward.

A good place to start, then, is with the OpenOffice suite. I find OpenOffice [5] (and its OS X port NeoOffice [6]) to be very similar to MS Office 2004 (but not 2007) and to handle most tasks just as efficiently. Of course, the tool bars are organized slightly differently, which is slightly annoying, but it’s easy to get used to. I suggest installing this software very early on and to start using it gradually until you find yourself barely using the other office suite. When the going gets tough and we want to go back to our level of comfort, we must remember why we’re doing this: We are trying to break our addiction to software that has “secret” inner workings, and that saves our work in a format that they control. And finally, when you feel brave enough, go ahead and delete your other office suite… It’ll feel good, trust me.

Our school’s documentation wiki has a pretty good list of free (and not so free) programs. You’ll be able to see which platform they run on, and whether they are free, or proprietary. [13]

Next…

Next, I had planned on addressing the next two steps in transitioning to a completely free system. Although these are, in my opinion, the most exciting steps to take, they are probably the furthest away. Even if these final steps cannot be taken for months, even years, all the work done above still pays off so let’s not get discouraged by the enormity of the task a head. We may indeed decide that some freedom is better than no freedom at all, and that complete freedom is too unpractical for the time being. Freedom is not a black and white concept, and every step in the right direction takes us closer to an asymptotic ideal we may never completely achieve in practice.

References

1. Wikipedia: Vendor Lock-in
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in>
2. Wikipedia: Free File Format
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_file_format>
3. OpenDocument Fellowship
   <http://opendocumentfellowship.com>
4. OpenDocument Fellowship: Conversion Software
   <http://opendocumentfellowship.com/applications#convert>
5. Open Office
   <http://www.openoffice.org>
6. Neo Office
   <http://www.neooffice.org>
7. Richard Stallman, “We Can Put an End to Word Attachments”
   <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html>
8. Wikipedia: Audio File Format
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format>
9. FLAC
   <http://flac.sourceforge.net>
10. OGG Vorbit
    <http://www.vorbis.com>
11. Wikipedia: Vorbis
    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis>
12. The Xiph.org foundation
    <http://www.xiph.org>
13. HIS Documentation Wiki, Software List
    <http://secondary.hisdomain.hdis.hc.edu.tw/wiki/doku.php?id=documentation:students:os_x:software>
14. HIS Documentation Wiki, OS X: Codecs <http://secondary.hisdomain.hdis.hc.edu.tw/wiki/doku.php?id=documentation:students:os_x#codecs>