Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Confessions of a FOSS fangirl

My name is Waylena, and I am a FOSS fangirl. I love that FOSS is both free as in speech and free as in beer. I love that I can poke around in source code and follow developer mailing lists. I love finding FOSS production tools, techniques and workflows. And I love teaching FOSS tools to others.

I am not, however, a FOSS fundamentalist. 

At work I use a variety of closed-source software packages and tools. From the software that runs the planetarium (Digistar 6) to the usual commercial office and production tools. For production I mostly use FOSS because I'm faster with GIMP than I am with Photoshop, and faster with Inkscape than I am with Illustrator. I had finally started working heavily with After Effects before the shutdowns, but working at home I've been almost entirely FOSS. 

...and more, on Linux

I prefer Linux whenever possible because to me it's usually friendlier. I am still using my Linux box, but now I've added a Windows 10 machine. The machine is a 2-year old gaming machine. In addition to the regular tools, I can now also run the full version of WorldWide Telescope, and OpenSpace. Openspace can be compiled for Linux, but I had not been successful at it yet. (New version should change that.) 

So now I have a second computer with a commercial OS and some FOSS tools that either aren't available or aren't yet readily available on my favorite FOSS OS. But that's okay. On my Linux box there are tools like Subtitle Editor and VokoscreenNG that aren't available for Windows. (There are alternatives, these are just my favorites at this time.)

My favorite FOSS software is both FOSS and multiplatform, but I have plenty of room in my heart toolbox for useful software tools that don't fit neatly into any category.

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