Downloading Free software, or any download for that matter, is one of the most common tasks of internet users, but on the other hand it exposes the user to security risks. Spyware, viruses, adware, bundled software and so on, known together as malware, are too common phenomena for those downloading from the web. Protecting your computer from malware, is as important as finding free software.

Lavasoft the company that developed Ad-Aware Free Internet Security, has recently released its predictions of security trends for 2011:

1. Complex targeted attacks on companies and/or critical infrastructure. Stuxnet made headlines this year due to its complexity, highly precise targeting, and the use of multiple zero-day exploits and stolen digital certificates. While Stuxnet’s intention to stay below the radar was not realized, we can expect to see further attempts to evade detection and to compromise fewer but higher value targets.
2. Zero-day application vulnerability exploits. Users understand the importance of applying operating system patches but are less aware of the need to apply security updates to applications; patches fixing application vulnerabilities are typically slow to appear, and it’s not always apparent to the user that an update is available and that action needs to be taken, making it an easier malware target. Adobe’s Flash and Reader applications bore the brunt of exploits in 2010 and were quick to be exploited – we can expect malware writers to react more quickly to leverage a wider array of application vulnerabilities.
3. Scareware and rogue (fake) security products. Rogue security software, also known as scareware, take the form of legitimate-looking anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware products and appear to be beneficial from a security perspective; in reality, they provide little or no protection, generate misleading alerts, or attempt to lure users into fraudulent transactions. The money made from this malware model ensures that cyber criminals will not abandon this profitable endeavor.
4. Mobile malware. Smartphones are becoming more ubiquitous and as more services involving financial transactions are made available to handsets, exploits that leverage vulnerabilities on smartphone operating systems are sure to be targets for cyber criminals. Recent examples of  Android malware and proof of concept examples suggesting iPhones are not immune suggest these non-Windows platforms have already attracted the attention of malware writers.
5. Blackhat SEO. Cyber scammers will continue to poison search engine results using trending headlines and videos to lead to malicious sites in an attempt to distribute rogue (fake) security software and other types of malware.

Download Ad-Aware Free Internet Security today

Ad-Aware Free Internet Security

Technorati Tags: Ad-Aware Free Internet Security, free software downloads, internet security threats, lavasoft

Technorati Tags: linux, open source, ubuntu

Important article. Here is an excerpt:

The Web as we know it, however, is being threatened in different ways. Some of its most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles. Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals. Governments—totalitarian and democratic alike—are monitoring people’s online habits, endangering important human rights.

If we, the Web’s users, allow these and other trends to proceed unchecked, the Web could be broken into fragmented islands. We could lose the freedom to connect with whichever Web sites we want. The ill effects could extend to smartphones and pads, which are also portals to the extensive information that the Web provides.

The Web as we know it, however, is being threatened in different ways. Some of its most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles. Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals. Governments—totalitarian and democratic alike—are monitoring people’s online habits, endangering important human rights.
If we, the Web’s users, allow these and other trends to proceed unchecked, the Web could be broken into fragmented islands. We could lose the freedom to connect with whichever Web sites we want. The ill effects could extend to smartphones and pads, which are also portals to the extensive information that the Web provides.

Read the full article

Technorati Tags: free software, internet, open source

In his excellent blog post, Amazon Abandons Linux for Windows, Ken Hess is speculating about the reasons Amazon has signed patent agreement with Microsoft. He has arrived at the conclusion that Amazon is interested in converting its Linux based Kindle into a Windows based device.

Good point, and although Ken may be right about it, this is a rather long shot. It may, as well, be related to Amazon Web Services, an important Amazon business by itself, rather than Kindle. Amazon announcement only one day after the patent agreement deal, as Ken noted, is an indication of this.

Time will tell, as the saying goes.

Technorati Tags: amazon, linux, windows

Amazon has announced a free Kindle for PC application in one more  move, which will revolutionize the way we consume books. Now you do not need to purchase The Kindle tablet in order to download and read Kindle books.

By offering the free kindle application Amazon has, significantly, lowered the bar for the digital books consumer. It hopes to attract many new Kindle users, who will in turn purchase books from the 400,000 titles already available for the Kindle application.

Is that the start of the end of the printed book? Probably not, but it is certainly an important step in revolutionizing the press industry.

In part 1 and part 2 of this article I have introduced the open source concept, and discussed the reason software developers are adopting it. In the third and final part, below, we will discuss the risks of distributing the source code together with the software itself, the pros and cons of open source from the perspective of the end user, as well as, the reasons why IT giants are strategically getting involved in open source development.

Is there a risk in distributing the source code?

Over time I have encountered with several discussions over the possible risks in distributing the source code for anyone to use and redistribute. There are basically two risks that were discussed.

Legal Risks
It is argued that by distributing the source code the programmers are risking copyrights violation in regards to their application. In other words, anyone can copy a portion of the code or all the code lines and use it to sell software that he has no rights to sell. Although the open source license protects the owner of the application from this type of illegal use of the source code, it does not necessarily stop such illegal activity. Anyone involved in programming could testify that it is not an easy task to write an application. Depending on the application it may take hundreds and thousands of hard working hours to write an application. No programmer would want to risk someone taking advantage of the available source code for personal gains.

On the other hand, what advantage does the copyrights violator has in open source over proprietary software. Basically, not much.

1. Most people would not know how the read the code, moreover be able to use it.
2. Why does anyone need the source code if he wants to sell illegal software? All proprietary software companies are struggling, without much success, with software piracy. In many countries it is a known joke that each software title has a single legal copy, and the rest are illegal copies of it. In many places, you can purchase software, PC games, DVDs and CDs, which are illegally produced an sold, for a fraction of the official prices.

When the copyright violator copies the whole code, the owner of that open source application can easily recognize the copyright violation. However, the main risk is when someone copies a portion of the code and produces a totally new application, making some changes in the original code, which makes it even harder to detect the violation. In my opinion this is the main risk in the copyrights perspective. It seems like the advantages of open source overcome this risk.

Security Risks
The main concern is, that by enabling anyone to view the source code, it makes it easier for hackers to find security holes in the application, which potentially compromise the end user. However, there is no concrete proof that the source code facilitate finding and exploring security holes for the bad guys. Fact is, there are lot of security problems with closed source software. In any case, even if we assume that the access to the source code actually facilitates finding security holes in software application, that would be true for the bad guys and for the good guys. That means that while some bad guys will take advantage of the open source, it is also an advantage for the good guys anywhere in the world, who will search for the same security holes. When the good guys find a security hole they will publish it in order to enable the community to fix it. With the speed open source communities issue patches to newly discovered security holes, it is hard for anyone to explore these holes.

As an end user it is important, in this perspective, that you remain alert and update the application whenever such updates become available.

Is Open Source good for the end user?

Lets list the pros and cons of open source in the perspective of the end user, starting with the cons.

Cons

• Some open source projects assume the end users have more technical knowledge than they actually have. This is mainly true in earlier versions of the application development.
• Some open source projects are being abandoned in the middle of the development. This is especially true when it comes to less-than-popular projects. (see below, the advantage of open source in these cases)
• Sometimes it is hard to get support for the open source application – paid or free. Again, this is especially true for not-so-popular projects.

Pros

• Open source application are mostly distributed free of charge.
• Open source development puts the end user above any commercial considerations.
• Users can get involved in the development of their preferred software, submit bugs, request new features, etc. It is not like sending bugs and request features to a proprietary software company, if you ever tried to do it with favorite proprietary application you probably realized that you usually don’t know if and when your bugs and requests will be addressed. In open source projects you have access to the list of current bugs and requested features, as well as, to the development roadmap.
• Security holes are found and fixed generally faster than in proprietary software.
• Updates, bug fixes and new versions are available more frequently.
• Access to the source code allows the end user to customize the application as he sees appropriate, providing he has the necessary knowledge or resources to modify the code.
• The user can search for security holes or back doors by himself. There has been some concern by government agencies, as well as by private companies, that the proprietary software companies may include a back door entrance in the application. The software developer or any third party aware of the back door, may take advantage of it, enabling them access to classified information. Having access to the source code, although do not totally eliminates this possibility, gives the end user (government agencies, banks, corporations, etc) the ability to make sure such back doors do not exist, something you cannot do with proprietary software.
• If anything happens to the developer or company involved in the project, you can always ask other developers to continue the project. As a matter of fact, many projects were abandoned in the middle of development, by the founder, and were picked up by others who continued the development afterwards. If the company you bought your proprietary application goes bankrupt you can literally throw away the software and start looking for another one. This is especially true when it comes to custom built applications, developed by local, small or medium size company.

Some important points you have to take into consideration when choosing an open source application.

1. Make sure the open source application, you are interested in, is popular, has an active community and is updated frequently.
2. Make sure the technical knowledge requires to install, run and maintain the application is within your current knowledge or available resources.
3. Make sure you get the latest stable version and that the application is in production phase and not a beta or alpha version. Due to the nature of open source, all applications are available for download from an early development stage, and they are not necessarily ready for use by the end user. As a rule any software version smaller than 1.0 (such as 0.8), does not have the full functionality implemented and may have more bugs than a production line application has. Unless you know what you are doing, or you are interested in getting involved in the project (as an end user), it is not recommended to use such applications.

What makes open source attractive for IT corporations?

As I have already mentioned earlier, many IT giants have embraced the open source movement, and support many popular projects. These companies devote programmers, funds and other resources, to open source projects. IBM for example supports open source in such way, in addition to donating many patents and source code to open source developers.

Why would they do that?

In one word – survival.

In order to survive in the ever changing IT market, with its tough competition, companies like IBM needed to look for an advantage over their competition. IBM now offers many open source applications on a service fee model. For the end user (from small to large businesses) its like taking the good things from both worlds, an open source application and a service of a well established IT corporation.

Another example is Novell, which was losing ground with its NetWare, a network administration application for the obsolete DOS operating system. It could have tried to compete with Microsoft for a share in networking for Windows, however it decided to focus on the increasingly popular Linux open source operating system, which is one of the fastest growing operating system used for networking.

This might be a rather simplistic examples, but I hope you got the point. It is strategically correct for these companies to change their business model from proprietary software business model to service-based open source business model, or some combination of both.

Is open source the future of the software industry?

That’s the one million dollar question (or rather one billion dollar question), but I would not want to predict since I have means of telling the future. I can only say that the current trend shows an increasing popularity and interest in open source from every corner of the globe. From the IT industry, from corporations and governments, not to mention from millions of individuals who knowingly or unknowingly use open source applications on a daily basis.

Conclusion
The open source movement is a fascinating subject, from social perspective, business perspective and even from political and economical perspectives. We might be experiencing a revolution in the software industry, which is likely to affect other business sectors. However, since we are in the middle of the process, it is hard to tell where all this will lead us. Only in ten or twenty years, we may have a better historical point of view to understand the phenomenon.

In this article I have only scratched the surface on most subjects I have brought up. If you are interested in more information, please refer to: OSI web site, as well as, to hundreds of articles on the subject available on the Internet.

Introduction to Open Source (Part 1)
Introduction to Open Source (Part 2)

In the first part of this article I have introduced the open source concept. In the second part, hereunder, we will further discuss the open source idea, its definitions and principals.

What is open source?

According to Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, open source is “A method and philosophy for software licensing and distribution designed to encourage use and improvement of software written by volunteers by ensuring that anyone can copy the source code and modify it freely.”

“The term “open source” is now more widely used than the earlier term “free software” (promoted by the Free Software Foundation) but has broadly the same meaning – free of distribution restrictions, not necessarily free of charge.”

Jargon File adds that Open Source is a “Term coined in March 1998 following the Mozilla release to describe software distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute, the code. The intent was to be able to sell the hackers’ ways of doing software to industry and the mainstream by avoid the negative connotations (to suits) of the term “free software”. For discussion of the follow on tactics and their consequences, see the Open Source Initiative (http://www.opensource.org) site.”

In other words, when a programmer starts an open source project, he publishes the source code for anyone to use and invites other programmers to collaborate with him in the development of the project. Volunteer programmers can then add, update or fix the code.

Users of an open source software may use, modify and redistribute the software and code freely as long as they comply with the license agreement. There are many types of open source licenses, of which the most common are: MPL (Mozilla Public License) and GNU GPL (General Public License). There are many more common and less common open source licenses, which are approved by Open source initiative (OSI). The full license list may be found here: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/

Why Open source?

On Open source initiative site the explanations is: “The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.”

Open source initiative‘s explanation may seem logical, but there is still the the big question of: how would you make a living when you are not only distributing your application free of charge (This is usually the case), but also the source code, which is the heart of the application?

Lets divide this question into two:

1. How do you make a living from open source?, and
2. What are the risks in distributing the source code?

Making a living from open source application is something that is still evolving, and I have encountered several business models related to open source applications. The three most common models are the service based model, the upgrade based model and sponsored based model.

The service based model depends on the fee the developer or distributor charges to install, maintain and upgrade the application. Many companies do not want to deal with every technical aspect of every software applications they use. As a matter of fact most companies, even large corporations, are outsourcing some or all of their IT (information technology) needs. By paying the service charge they are guaranteed to get all the bug fixes, security holes patches and upgrades for as long as they use the software. IBM, Redhat and many other IT enterprises involved in open source are applying this business model.

The upgrade based model is similar to above, but the main difference is that you can get the same software application free of charge as long as you install and maintain it yourself. Usually this mean that you will need to have some basic technological knowledge, and time to research forums and knowledge bases to solve technical issues. However, you have the choice to pay a monthly service charge to receive technical assistance directly from the software development company. Mandriva Linux for example offers such services which they call club membership.

Other flavors of the upgrade model is when you can get a better application for a fee, Limewire is one example, which offers a pro version which is faster and more advanced than the free version, which they call LimeWire Basic. Another example, is Codeweavers‘ Crossover professional solution, which is based on its open source freely distributed Wine, allowing Windows applications run on Linux machines.

The last popular business model depends on funds from either sponsors or user’s donation. In other words the developer is asking for your donation or sponsorship to allow them to continue development. The popular Firefox browser is sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation, as well as, on donation from other sources (corporate and individual). Another example, OpenOffice.org is sponsored by Sun Microsystems and individual donations. Some smaller open source projects depends solely on donations.

In fact many open source developers are applying more than one business model. Other models exists and the growing popularity of open source development is likely to introduce new innovative business models.

What about the individual developers? How do they make a living?

Open source depends on the contribution of volunteer developers. These are programmers who contribute their code without asking for any return. This is one of the most intriguing phenomena of the open source movement. There are practically tens of thousands of programmers, all over the world, who voluntarily contribute to open source projects. How do you explain that? I have no clear answer, in fact, nobody does, but after five years of following the open source movement in general and some open source projects in particular, I think I can try and make some personal observations on the phenomena:

• There is certainly a lot of passion involved . People are paying a lot of money to create and maintain hobbies, so why not a hobby like programming, which requires only a computer and an Internet connection.
• People like to interact. We have recently seen the growing number of social interaction web sites. Open source is also some kind of a social interaction, just like Forums, New groups and projects like Digg.com, Del.icio.us and orkut.com.
• Many of the programmers who contribute to open source projects start when they are teenagers. It gives them an opportunity, people their age did not have in the past, to participate in the development of a software projects. It gives them satisfaction and experience which they could always present in their portfolio when applying to a job before or after college.
• Many developers, who started as teenagers or students, are now employed by large corporations and earn a 6-figure salary.
• Many programmers are from developing countries and the opportunity to introduce their talent plays an important role in their efforts.

To summarize this point. The volunteer programmers may not have a direct or immediate return for their efforts, but in the long run it pays off most of them.

Introduction to Open Source (Part 1)
Introduction to Open Source (Part 3)

Introduction

In recent years, the open source movement has established a respectful position in the software industry. Many enterprises have embraced open source platform and applications and some of the software giants has adopted open source strategically: IBM, Novell, Oracle and even Google, to name a few.

What is open source in the first place? Why would anyone want to develop an open source application? How do you make a living from open source application? Is Open source good for the end user? What is making open source attractive for these corporations? Finally, is open source the future of the software industry?

These questions are what this article is all about.

When I moved to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, in 1998, I didn’t speak much Portuguese, so I took a job as an English tutor in a private language school. I used to teach mainly executives both in private corporation, as well as, in government institutions. One of my loyal students, who was known as Junior (Brazilians tend to have very long names with an average of four to five names, all in the while, they have a short nick name, e.g., Pele, Ronaldinho, Lula, and so on). Junior was a co-owner of a successful Internet design company which built web sites for government institutions, national banks, etc.

One day Junior drops a bomb – “Windows is not a good operating system”, he told me in his heavy accented English, “it is not stable”, (remember Windows 98?), “and there are better alternatives”.

I first tried to protest, but then asked him about the other alternatives other than Mac, which I was familiar with.

“Linux”, he said in one word.

That was the first time I heard about Linux.

A couple of years later I installed my first Redhat Linux system on my Dell machine, deleting in the process, by mistake, my Windows partitions, which was reinstalled later on. Since then I am working primarily on a Linux desktop, currently on Freespire 1.0, but always keeping an eye on other Linux distributions, such as, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Xandros, and Fedora core. Needless to say that my web server runs on a Redhat ES 3.0 Linux machine.

Since I have installed my first Red Hat Linux back in 2001, desktop Linux has made a significant progress and many issues I had to struggle with five years ago, now goes seamlessly. But the single most important concept, I was introduced to in the process, was open source.

Linux may be the most celebrated open source software, but perhaps not the most popular one. Other popular open source applications include, Mozilla Firefox, Limewire, OpenOffice.org, and many more.

This weblog I am publishing is made possible primarily by open source applications: It is published on a WordPress, and made available to the public thanks to Apache web server running on a Linux machine. Even the draft is written locally on an OpenOffice.org office suite running on Freespire Linux desktop.

Introduction to Open Source (Part 2)
Introduction to Open Source (Part 3)

There is some confusion in regards to the relation between freeware and free software. Some claim freeware is not free software. Is there or isn’t there a difference between the two.

If you ask the average Internet user, they will say it is the same thing – Freeware is just a combination and a short form of free software. Just like “infomercial” is a combination of information and commercial.

If you ask people involved with open source projects they would say that free software is not the same thing as freeware.

Freeware
According to American Heritage Dictionary freeware is “Software that is available for free, usually over the Internet.”

According to Jargon File freeware is, “Free software, often written by
enthusiasts and distributed by users’ groups, or via electronic mail, local bulletin boards, Usenet, or other electronic media…”

According to Wikipedia.org, “The term freeware was coined by Andrew Fluegelman when he wanted to sell a communications program named PC-Talk that he had created but for which he did not wish to use traditional methods of distribution because of their cost”. However, “Fluegelman actually distributed PC-Talk via a process now referred to as shareware”. And Jargon File adds: “At one time, `freeware’ was a trademark of Andrew Fluegelman…”, but “It wasn’t enforced after his mysterious disappearance and presumed death in 1984.”

Freeware may be defined as a copyrighted software which is distributed free of charge, and may be used indefinitely. This is different than shareware, demo or trialware where the user is required to pay after the trial period.

There are many variations to what is considered freeware. Some variations are related to the license agreement, which restricts the use of the software for personal, non-commercial, academic, etc. Other variations are related to the user interface and limitation of the features offered. For example, freeware may include ads on the interface, which we refer to as adware, or remind you from time to time that you may donate funds or upgrade the freeware to a paid version, which is referred to as nags or nagware. The upgraded version usually include additional features, will free you from the ads, or a combination of both. Sometimes the paid version will include free support, which the freeware may not entitle the user for.

Applications that correspond to above definition are for example, Opera (Browsers), Download Accelerator (Download Managers), RoboForm (Browser Tools) and many more.

On the other hand we have free software.

Free Software
According to the Free Software Foundation, “Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.”

“Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.”

The philosophy behind the Free Software Foundation and Free Software Movement is that software should be your property and you have the rights to customize it and modify it as per your requirements. The same way you can paint your house, change your car’s motor and wheels, you have the same rights on your software. Proprietary software do not allow this and if you need to customize it you need to ask the developer to do it, which may cost a fortune or may not be possible at all (have you ever tried to ask the company that sold you your operating system to customize it to your needs?).

As a matter of fact, when you purchase a proprietary software you do not become the owner of the software, you just pay for the rights to use it, and even the use is restricted to a certain number of work stations, or even to a specific one (see OEM software)

Most Free Software are released under the GPL (General Public License), which means you can modify and redistribute the software, but under the restriction of maintaining credit to previous developers. You also must release the modified software under GPL as well, which means you cannot transform it into Proprietary software.

Maybe the most famous free software is the Linux operating system, but the list continues with other famous free software application, such as, Firefox (Browser), Apache (web server), Limewire (File Sharing/Peer to Peer), and many more.

Free Software or open source software create other restrictions when it comes to what you may do or may not do with the software, but I will leave this discussion to a future article which I plan to write in the near future.

Conclusion
When you study these two terms, ‘freeware’ and ‘free software’ you may find that there is a difference in the definition. However, on practically it is hard to separate the two terms. Most Internet users will not know the difference between the two terms for them freeware is synonymous with free software. Many software titles which fall into the definition of freeware, according to above, are presented by the publishers as free software, which is certainly not incorrect, since free software may also mean free of charge.

When you choose a software application you need to make sure it answers your requirements and you may want to take into account the limitation and restrictions they may include. If you find a great software title free of charge which carry ads on its interface (adware), why not use it if the ads do not bother you. If they do bother you can usually pay a fee and get rid of them. If you find an application that falls into the definition of free software, as explained above, better still. Just make sure it is actively maintained and supported by an active community.

At Freeware Network we do not discriminate between ‘freeware’ and ‘free software’, whatever their definition is. Our policy is to include in our database software applications that you may download the free of charge and use it for an unlimited time (even if there are other restrictions and limitations). At the same time we do not tolerate spyware and will not knowingly list any application which include spyware.

In the preparation of this article I have used the following resources:
Free Software Foundation
Wikipedia.org
Dictionary.com