We're launching a series of posts on free software alternatives to the digital tools most commonly used by collectives and organisations: Google Drive, Zoom, Office, Figma, Adobe… We start with the basics: what free software is and why it's worth choosing.

We’re launching a series of posts on free software alternatives to the digital tools most commonly used by collectives and organisations: Google Drive, Zoom, Office, Figma, Adobe… We start with the basics: what free software is and why it’s worth choosing.

What is free software?

It is software developed in the open, under licences that allow anyone to view its code, use it, modify it and redistribute it. Free doesn’t necessarily mean free of charge. We can distinguish two kinds of tools:

  • Desktop: downloaded and installed on your computer. They are usually free of charge, but it’s good practice to make a donation to help sustain the projects.
  • Online: used from the browser. The software is free, but running servers, backups and maintenance costs money. They are sometimes a bit more expensive than their proprietary alternatives, because they are sustained by smaller organisations that don’t make a living selling data to third parties.

A political decision

Choosing free software is a political decision, not an economic one. Even if it sometimes saves money, the goal is to support shared tools, free access to knowledge, and models that put cooperation and people’s lives, both of those who develop the tools and of those who use them, ahead of profit.

Some key terms

  • Proprietary software: its code is not public and it is controlled by the company that develops it. Google Drive, Microsoft Office and Adobe are examples.
  • Open source: a term close to free software, but focused on the technical side. When we talk about free software we add an explicit ethical commitment.
  • Licence: a legal document that defines what can be done with a piece of software.
  • Instance: each specific installation of a program. Google Drive only exists on Google’s servers, but a free tool can have many instances run by different organisations. Choosing an instance means choosing who hosts and manages your data.
  • ERP: an integrated management system (invoicing, projects, HR…).
  • Encryption: a technique that ensures only the intended recipients can read the information.

In upcoming posts we’ll review alternatives for files and office suites, communication, organisation, design and management.

If you think we can help you with these or other tools, write to us at [email protected] and we’ll prepare a quote for you.