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1 \documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article} 2 3 \usepackage[backend=bibtex]{biblatex} 4 \usepackage{geometry} 5 \usepackage{titling} 6 \usepackage{titlesec} 7 \usepackage[english]{babel} 8 \usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref} 9 \usepackage{listings} 10 \usepackage{xcolor} 11 \usepackage{graphicx} 12 \usepackage{forest} 13 \usepackage{tikz-qtree} 14 \usepackage{setspace} 15 16 \addbibresource{ref.bib} 17 18 \graphicspath{ {./images} } 19 20 \titleformat{\section} {\Huge} {} {0em} {}[\titlerule] 21 \geometry{a4paper,total={170mm,257mm},left=25mm,right=25mm,} 22 23 \author{Lucas Standen} 24 \title{Why are FOSS tools preferred in the development and privacy space?} 25 26 \begin{document} 27 \maketitle 28 29 \newpage 30 31 \section{Using this document} 32 This document is written using the {\LaTeX} text compiler. The compiler has set up 33 click-able links, click-able references and a click-able table of contents, so please use these to your advantage. 34 The Tex source and Bib Tex bibliography is available for all at \url{https://git.seacrossedlovers.xyz/epq.git} under 35 the MIT/X document license. 36 37 \tableofcontents 38 \newpage 39 40 \setlength{\parskip}{1em} 41 42 {\setlength{\parindent}{0cm} 43 \section{Used language in this paper} Throughout this paper, language specific to the field of computer 44 science will be used, and as such it makes sense to provide a brief overview for those who don't know 45 what specific terms mean. 46 47 \begin{description} 48 \item[Licenses] In this setting a license is a legal document that is distributed with 49 almost all modern software, which describes how someone can use and redistribute a piece of software. 50 \item[Free Software] This term refers to software under specific licenses, making them 51 free for the user to use (free as in freedom, not the monetary cost). This will be covered further 52 in the next section. 53 \item[Open Source] This term refers to a piece of software, where the original code for it 54 is publicly available. This too will be covered further in the next section. 55 \item[FOSS] An acronym for \textit{"\textbf{F}ree and \textbf{O}pen \textbf{S}ource \textbf{S}oftware".} 56 57 \item[IDE] An \textit{\textbf{I}ntegrated \textbf{D}evelopment \textbf{E}nvironment}, is a tool used by developers 58 to write code, it can be thought of as a text editor-like Word or Docs, but instead of spell checking, 59 it instead has syntax checking. 60 \end{description} 61 62 \section{A brief introduction} 63 This paper will cover the advancements of FOSS tools and systems over time, discuss the benefits, its recent growth, 64 and the reasons developers and privacy experts find it to be a better tool for the job. This paper will cover a variety 65 of ways of how FOSS software is used compared to its proprietary counterparts. 66 67 68 \section{What is free software?} The free software movement is one that has been active for over 40 years 69 \cite{GNUmaifesto}, it has created some of the most important tools in computing that are used by billions on a 70 daily basis. It is so engraved in our lives, yet so few even know what the term means; In a simple note, it is 71 software for a computer, phone or other device that can be used without violating the users freedom. 72 73 The definition of what counts as free software and what is software freedom can vary depending on who you ask, but 74 it was originally written that software that allows the following freedoms is free software: 75 76 \begin{description} 77 \item[0] The freedom to run a program for any purpose 78 \item[1] The freedom to study how a program works, and modify it to your needs 79 \item[2] The freedom to redistribute a piece of software 80 \item[3] The freedom to redistribute a edited version of software publicly 81 \end{description} 82 \textit{These freedoms were written by Richard Stallman\cite{FOSSdef} who is ever important in this space.} 83 84 It is important that one does not confuse free software with software that is monetarily free, this is known as 85 free-ware. Free software defends the users rights to use and modify software and is not focused on its cost. 86 However free software often is also free in cost, so the confusion is easily made. 87 88 One should also note the differences between free software and open source software. In open source software, 89 like free software, the original code for a program is available to anyone, however in open source, this is to 90 better the projects development and usability, whereas in free software it is to better the users freedom. They 91 both use the same methods to achieve differing goals; this often leads them to be commonly used together, as the 92 benefits a user gets from free software is much the same in open source software, and vice versa. 93 94 The main goal of free software is to allow the user to have as much freedom as possible when using a piece of 95 software for any purpose. This is in contrast to the traditional alternative, called proprietary software, which 96 can be defined as software that the user can not edit, modify or redistribute without the original publishers 97 permission. This kind of software intentionally restricts the users freedom, usually for the purpose of profit or 98 control of the software. Some common examples of proprietary software, are Microsoft's \textit{Windows}, Apple's 99 \textit{iOS}, and Google's \textit{Chrome} web browser. 100 101 Many people don't know that they already use free software\cite{COMMONfoss}, and sometimes the tools they use most 102 often are in fact free software. A few examples of this are, Krita\cite{KRITA}; a graphics design and art tool that is 103 used frequently in animation, and other digital art, is made and managed by the KDE foundation\cite{KDE}, who make 104 exclusively free software. Dovecot\cite{DOVECOT}; an email server used by many major email providers. 105 A final example is Firefox\cite{FIREFOX}; a free software web browser made by Mozilla that makes up 2.71\% 106 of the browser market share as of 2024, however in the past has had up to 30\%\cite{BROWSERmarketshare}. These 107 are all more modern examples of free software, however over the past 40 years, there have been countless others. 108 109 \section{A brief history of FOSS} 110 The term free software was first coined by Richard Stallman in 1983\cite{GNUproject}, 111 however even before this, examples of free software (and the disapproval of proprietary software), were already 112 starting to show. 113 114 One of the earliest examples of the disapproval of Non-free Software, was the response to Microsoft's \textit{An 115 open letter to hobbyists}\cite{OPENletter}, which was written by Bill Gates in 1976. This letter detailed that 116 people had been stealing from Microsoft, as many people had brought hardware through them, but far fewer people 117 had brought required software for said hardware. The fact this was happening at a scale large enough to cause this 118 showed how many computing groups, also known as hacker groups/spaces at the time, weren't willing to pay for the software they 119 used, believing that if they brought the hardware they had done all that was needed\cite{OPENletter}. It is often 120 believed that this is one of the first examples of \textit{hacker culture}, which would become more common into the 121 80's and 90's, and was the starting point of the current free software movement, where people continued the view, 122 that software was not a commodity to be sold, but a resource to be shared. 123 124 A key figure in \textit{hacker culture}, as previously mentioned, is Richard Stallman. In the 125 1980's he left his job at MIT to work full time on the GNU project, which was designed 126 to be a full recreation of AT\&T's Unix operating system from the ground up as free software. The idea was to 127 allow anyone access to a Unix like machine without paying AT\&T's expensive license fees, and allow any user to 128 view it, redistribute or edit; it was to be the first fully free operating system. The early development of GNU 129 was relatively slow, and it was not a completely free system for many years, as some core parts of the operating 130 system were missing, meaning Non-free alternatives had to be used. However this would later change in 1991, when 131 final additions would be created. 132 133 In 1988 the BSD Net1 operating system would release\cite{BSDnet1}, this was the first fully open version of the 134 Berkeley Software Distribution version of Unix. BSD was by no means new by this point, however it wasn't fully 135 free until this point. This version had completely rewritten all the code from the original Unix that previous 136 versions contained, meaning it was now completely free from AT\&T's licenses. It would be the start of a long 137 lineage of open source operating systems which are now the base of MacOS, FreeBSD and OpenBSD and is often deemed 138 as the first open source operating system. 139 140 The GNU project, while still not fully finished, saw the final piece of the puzzle when Linux\cite{LINUX} released in 141 1991, it was a fully free kernel which GNU was still lacking (however it did get its own kernel called GNU Hurd but 142 Linux is far more commonly used). With GNU and Linux paired together a user could finally get a fully free operating 143 system for general use, this combination of software is still in use today, having a 4.7\% market share globally 144 on desktop computers\cite{LINUXmarket}, and on web servers it is dominant. In recent years it has also shown some 145 use in gaming, with it being the operating system used by Valve's \textit{steam deck} gaming handheld\cite{STEAMdeck}. 146 147 As one can see, the rise of free software has been tied to the rise of Unix, and this is no surprise; like many 148 free software projects, the goal of Unix was to make small reusable tools that together became a coherent operating system, 149 that could be modified and changed per any users needs. This happened to align with the free software movement, 150 and thus many early projects, were recreating or adding to Unix. 151 152 Since Linux's release there haven't been as many major events in the space and more so a steady flow of updates 153 and new features, most likely due to the amount of people working on projects being high enough for constant 154 development, as opposed to one person sending in code every few days or weeks. There was another large jump 155 in development over the COVID lock downs. As of 2024 it would be hard not to say free software is fully viable 156 against its proprietary counterpart. 157 158 \section{How is Free Software developed?} 159 The process of developing free software has changed over time, especially 160 as the Internet came to be, allowing developers from all across the world to add to things. In modern terms the 161 development process is very simple, a developer can look at a piece of code, make changes to a local version of 162 it, then it can be uploaded to a central online version of the code, to be checked by lead maintainers, before 163 becoming the part of the main version (developers would say creating a local branch and submitting a pull request). 164 This method was popularised by version control systems; such as git\cite{GIT} and RCS, which are both free software. 165 What these tools allow for is the work of many people to brought together into one single code base. 166 167 When code is submitted, it generally gets split into individual chunks (called patches) which each have an individual 168 purpose. Each patch added will fix 1 bug or add 1 feature, this leads to a simple development cycle that can easily 169 be used to fix bugs, by breaking them down into small patches that need to be written, and distributing the work 170 between many developers. 171 172 Without going into too much detail, this is done by merging all contributions into the main code base by 173 comparing line numbers in differing versions, this is a fully automated process, managed by your version control 174 system. This pattern of development is liked amongst programmers as it allows many to submit code all at once, 175 which is invaluable if your project has many developers. This method is also commonly used in Non-free Software, 176 to manage large development teams\cite{NONFREEvcs}. 177 178 \section{Comparing free software to its Proprietary counterparts} 179 As previously mentioned there are many different 180 examples of free software, often made to be an alternative to a common piece of proprietary software, each have 181 their pro's and con's. To compare, one can look at performance data and usability. To show a wide range of software, 182 this paper will look at programming IDE's, web browsers, and office software, as most computer users have used at 183 least one of these, and thus will be familiar with them. 184 185 \subsection{Programming IDE's} 186 \textit{An \textbf{IDE} is an \textbf{I}ntegrated \textbf{D}evelopment \textbf{E}nvironment} 187 188 The main IDE's used by developers are free software, but there are a few Non-free ones that are used according to 189 the Stack-overflow developer survey\cite{IDEusage}. To compare text editors, one can look at \textit{VS Code} as 190 an example of open software, with 73\% of developers claiming to have used it at some point, and \textit{IntelliJ}, 191 as an example of Non-free Software, with 26\% of developers claiming to have used it at some point\cite{IDEusage}. 192 193 These tools are both commonly used personally and professionally, and are of a similar size, making them ideal to 194 compare. On the performance side of the argument, VS Code has Intellij beat, being faster to open and generally 195 more lightweight than Intellij, this has been put up to the fact that VS Code is written in JavaScript, which is 196 faster than Java, which is what Intellij is written in\cite{VSCODEvsintellij}. 197 198 On the usability side, things are more even, both editors have features that makes them better than each other, 199 each of them have plug-ins support, advanced text editing features and each have auto completion. However in this 200 sense VS Code still generally comes ahead, with its more main stream user base, more gets made for it, and as it is 201 open source, it is generally easier for users to add features, in the form of patches, and in the form of plug-ins, 202 although no definite numbers are available on exact plug-in counts publicly, VS Code is most defiantly ahead, 203 with this too. It becomes clear how projects like Vs Code become dominate; people want to use something that is 204 well supported, and then because they too are using it, its support can become better, which is an upward cycle, 205 that goes on until you reach the market cap. 206 207 \begin{figure}[h] 208 \caption{Comparing speed of browsers, time \textit{(lower is better)}} 209 \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{webbrowserperfomace.png} 210 \center{\cite{BROWSERperformace}} 211 \label{fig:graph} 212 \end{figure} 213 214 \subsection{Web Browsers} 215 To compare web browsers, one can look at two commonly used browsers, Google Chrome, 216 and Firefox. Both of these are known projects, that are used by near billions every day combined, one can look at 217 their performance and usability to compare these projects. 218 219 Figure \textbf{\ref{fig:graph}} denotes each browsers performance in encryption and decryption, while not fully 220 representative of all use cases, it is one of many things that goes into the final speed of the browser. As the 221 graph shows, Firefox's FOSS implementation of JavaScript has lead to a faster final product, most likely as more 222 people have had eyes on the code, and suggested optimisations over the past 20 years. On the front of performance 223 it is clear that the FOSS tool has beaten the proprietary counterpart. 224 225 In respect to usability things come more to user preference, so what one needs to look at, is extensibility; the 226 ability to make a piece of software exactly fit their needs. In this yet again Firefox wins out, while both Firefox 227 and Google Chrome have plug-in capability's, Firefox is known for its completely open system to them, allowing any 228 and all extensions to be used. In contrast Google limits what can be used via the "manifest" documents, this series 229 of documents describes what is and isn't allowed in the Chrome browser, and is significant as it holds a large 230 market share. The most recent one of these documents, manifest V3\cite{MANIFESTv3}, has come to much disapproval 231 amongst users, as it will disallow AD blockers, and other extensions that selectively remove content from web pages. 232 233 In today's world, the majority of browsers are based on Chrome in some way or another with Firefox being one of 234 the few exceptions to this rule. Due to this, most browsers will be effected by manifest V3 as it comes into full 235 effect in the coming years. As this happens it will become increasingly hard to deny that Firefox is easier to 236 customise and make usable to the users needs. 237 238 \subsection{Office Software} 239 When looking at office software, their are two commonly used tools, Microsoft Office 240 (also known as 365), and Libreoffice. Microsoft Office is proprietary software, and has been since its creation 241 in the early days of personal computing, Libreoffice on the other hand, has been FOSS software from the start 242 (Libre actually means free in Spanish, so this is no surprise). They both provide advanced features, and for the 243 most part are completely cross compatible. In this sense they have become almost identical tools. 244 245 As the tools are so similar one will find it's not worth comparing them, in this way we can say that there is no 246 difference, they are both mature, well used, effective suites of software, they are equal. This is something many 247 people struggle to see sometimes as they have been using one piece of Non-free Software for so long, they don't 248 want to move to anything else. This has negative effects on the users, many Non-free tools are effected by cyber 249 attacks, and long lasting bugs, that could be fixed by switching to free Software alternatives, as the technical 250 users of these tools fix these issues quickly compared to alternatives. This is usually put up to the fact that 251 most FOSS developers aren't working to new features and are instead working to making a tool that works for them. 252 253 \subsection{General conclusions} 254 Overall one can see that in many areas of software use, FOSS tools are already 255 at an equal state or better, than the Non-free counterparts, for general users. One may find that this balance 256 begins to change in more specific fields, where optimisation and speed may become more important than it is to 257 the common computer user or tools are only made by large companies and no free alternative exist. 258 259 \section{What makes Free Software so appealing to developers?} 260 \subsection{What is appealing?} 261 Free software is open to all for edits and changes, this has makes it a tinker playground for all who know how. 262 Many FOSS projects are used to learn how to code\cite{LEARNINGtocodewithfoss}, how to manage code and how to add to existing code; thus 263 FOSS software is appealing to developers, especially new ones. If a developer uses software they have edited/customised 264 them self, they may find that that software becomes easier to use as they can see its inner workings. 265 266 Even outside the realms of learning resources FOSS tools are liked by professional developers\cite{FOSSinindistry}, for the same reasons. 267 In enterprise software development, there is often very specific tasks that need to be done, thus having full access to 268 a related tool, can lead to a solution coming from modifying something that already exists, or by observing inner workings. 269 This is very helpful in an enterprise setting for a number of reasons, such as: ones work is too specific to have a pre-existing 270 tool, or ones company may not be able to acquire a license to an existing piece of software. 271 272 \subsubsection{What is not appealing?} 273 Many developers do however site issues with FOSS, often claiming it to be too hands on, which may not be ideal. While a large amount 274 of these claims are no longer true (especially around tools like Linux\cite{LINUXhard}), they do still hold weight over the free software 275 community. It is in a sense a double edged sword, because tools are more customisable\cite{FOSScustomize}, it can feel that without customisation's, one 276 does not get a proper experience using FOSS if one wants something that just works. 277 278 \subsection{Why is it more appealing than Non-free Software?} 279 Due to the closed down nature of Non-free Software, it is often hard to work with when a specific use cases is required, as it 280 is too locked down to customise. For a lot of developers they also find Non-free Software as a blight on the software space, 281 as they feel that it is objectively worse, due to the locked nature and corporate profits often being considered before user 282 experience, this is only an opinion, but it is held by many individuals in the space. 283 284 \subsubsection{Why is the alternative still better for some people?} 285 For some people, the stable, static nature of Non-free tools is appealing over the draws of newer free tools. Many people also worry 286 about the speradic nature of development in free software, as they are often held up by only a few individuals, these people aren't interested 287 in customising their software, and instead are trying to use something they are familiar with. 288 289 \subsection{How does this effect other users?} 290 As repeated various times, a lot of what makes FOSS appealing is the fact it can be customised, far more than other pieces of 291 software. This often leads to developers using a piece of software, then as it open, they contribute to it, but it often ends up 292 being that the features added are developer focused and thus do not help general users, or in some cases, hinders them. 293 This has all lead to and \textit{echo chamber} effect, where features are added by developers for developers. One must be made 294 aware however that this is not true of all projects, it is just a trend among major projects. 295 296 \subsection{Conclusions} 297 Overall a lot of this comes down to weather a project can be customised or not, as this is a feature key to developers 298 as it is often targeted towards them. This has given FOSS tools a strong hold in the developer space with a large amount 299 of them using tools like Linux, Vim\cite{STACKOVERFLOW}, and many others. 300 301 \section{What makes free software so appealing to privacy enthusiasts?} 302 The reason that FOSS is preferred can be put up to many reasons, many of which are hard to say/know as privacy enthusiasts are 303 usually quite good at hiding, however a few known reasons, methods and individuals can be studied. 304 305 \subsection{Who are privacy enthusiasts and why do they do what they do?} % needs an edit, "why do they do what they do" is clunky 306 Privacy enthusiasts are simply people who care for their privacy very heavily, they like to keep them self completely 307 anonymous when using technology; there are many reasons one may want to do this, for example, individuals in politically 308 tense countries may wish to remain hidden when reading outside news sources or talking to others from the rest of the world. 309 Another example could be those who have information that they wish to make public, as they deem it to be right to share, while 310 a legally dubious, it is a reason that people wish to be hidden. And finally it may be that people do not want information 311 going to large corporations, who are known for selling user data. 312 313 \subsection{Some known examples} 314 When looking for privacy experts, historical examples are the best place to look; as these are well documented, and thus easier to study. 315 There are many examples of privacy being used to better situations, for a multitude of reasons, and here is a list of a few notable and well 316 documented examples. 317 318 \begin{description} 319 \item[BBC reporters and readers: ] 320 While not an individual, a very interesting case, to ensure those who live in countries 321 with restrictive media, or communications, the BBC have began to host a version of their news site over 322 the TOR network\cite{BBCtor}, which means people from restrictive countries can read uncensored news without 323 their governments knowing. This service is also used by their reporters to feed back information from 324 countries with strict political monitoring. 325 \item[Edward Snowden: ] 326 In 2013 this man leaked many documents from the NSA \textit{(the American National Security Agency)}, 327 outlining how the USA had full access to email communications between the majority of major email providers in the USA. 328 He is known for using many privacy and security related FOSS tools when fleeing from America to avoid prosecution. 329 While this is obviously highly illegal, with the USA prosecuting him under the Espionage Act of 1917; he is often praised 330 for his work, pushing against mass surveillance. What is interesting about him as an individual is that he worked for 331 the NSA and CIA and says that the mass surveillance was thought of as common in these places\cite{EDWARDsnowden}. 332 \item[Lawrence Lessig: ] 333 He is known for pushing digital privacy and free software, creating the Creative Commons\cite{CC}. He cares for privacy for the sake 334 of it, not because he has things to hide like Edward Snowden, or because he is in a politically restrictive location. He has 335 appeared in/worked on films, books and other media trying to push for free digital speech and free digital use. He believes 336 digital privacy is one of many steps needed to achieve this\cite{LESSIG}. Creative Commons is known for its use adgacent 337 to free software, as they are both about sharing, reusing and avoiding limitations. 338 \end{description} 339 \subsection{What Free Software do they use?} 340 While many tools come to mind when thinking of privacy, the most prominent ones have to be TOR and Linux. 341 342 TOR (\textit{\textbf{T}he \textbf{O}nion \textbf{R}outer}), is a free software tool that allows a user to encrypt their network 343 traffic, and send it through three other computers first. This is similar to a VPN (\textit{\textbf{V}irtual \textbf{P}rivate \textbf{N}etwork}), 344 which sends network traffic through an middle man before it is received at the server. This is a helpful feature as it can hide a users location, 345 and bypass network blocks set by Internet service providers. The difference is that TOR, will go through three random middle men nodes, instead of one constant node\cite{TOR}. Using TOR makes it almost impossible for a server to know where the original 346 connection came from, and makes it very hard to intercept signals between the user and server, thus hiding the user of the computer. 347 This \textit{connection masking}, as it is called, can be used to hide website traffic, messaging traffic or in fact any kind of network 348 traffic, to someone trying to spy on the user, they will never know where they are connecting too, how often they are connecting, or for 349 how long. 350 351 Linux \textit{(also known as GNU/Linux)}, as previously mentioned is a free and open source operating system, this is frequently used by privacy enthusiasts 352 as it has been vetted by countless individuals to ensure it contains no malicious code that could effect a users individual privacy. GNU/Linux 353 is split into many different distributions that are all individually maintained, some of them are designed for general use, while others are 354 meant for more specific use cases. All of them will be more private than Non-free alternatives as they are so rigorously checked. Some privacy 355 specific ones exist such as tails OS\cite{TAILSOS}, and some are designed for more offensive privacy and security such as Kali Linux\cite{KALIlinux}. 356 357 \subsection{Why is Proprietary software not applicable for this use case?} 358 For privacy experts and enthusiasts, free and open tools are preferable for the fact that they know what is happening internally. If a user were 359 using Non-free tools, it would be impossible to know weather the code running had their privacy in mind, or if it would be sending data to a large 360 corporation or other such entity. For this reason free and open software is perfect, there cant be any hidden malicious intentions as they would be 361 seen by all who vet these tools on a daily basis. Another reason that one can draw as to why someone would want to use free tools is that they are 362 less restricted in what they can do; Non-free tools are limited by corporate law and other such things, free software on the other hand is less limited 363 as restricting what individuals make and share, would end up making many things in common life illegal. Its under these rules that tools such as 364 TOR can exist. 365 366 \section{Where else is Free Software used and why?} 367 Free software is used in many places, it is versatile, and easy to modify, which is ideal for most corporate situations or public 368 services. For example free software is in libraries to allow for easy management of books and databases\cite{LIBRARIESFOSS}. In libraries, 369 it has made it easier to manage compared to alternatives, and people have been doing this for many years, via freeware and shareware and other 370 older examples that are similar to free software. 371 372 Another example is in the energy sector\cite{ENERGYsector}, where it is used to manage power distribution and preferred due to generally improved 373 security, and ability to adapt to newer hardware systems. It does all this, while costing far less (or nothing), compared to alternative software's 374 which are known for being highly expensive, often sold as a yearly service. 375 376 \section{What's next for the Free Software space?} 377 In the coming years it is clear the free software space is going to grow, with major projects like Linux becoming exponentially more popular. These 378 trends aren't showing any signs of stopping, and infact are increasing. From the growth in the space right now, one could assume that someone who is 379 using one or two pieces of free software today, might be using many more in the coming years. 380 381 This recent up tick has been put up to many things, such as improved quality compared to the past. Many people say there is a lower barrier to entry, 382 with more user friendly software. Many also have become frustrated with the lack of control they have over there systems, data, and privacy; with things 383 changing without their control. All of these reasons, and many others have lead to the recent up tick in free software in the past 5 years. 384 385 The same level of growth is being seen with developers, becoming a large community, commonly associated with the free software movement. Newer tools 386 are always being made, with the advancements in AI, including the first open models and frameworks, such as Llama; new IDE's and improving features in existing 387 ones, for example vim getting full/improved LSP features. 388 389 390 \section{Closing thoughts} 391 392 \subsection{A needed critisim} 393 On a last note, it is important to look at the overall draw-backs accociated with FOSS projects, while they do develope at a faster speed 394 and almost always put their users first, it should not be overlooked that FOSS projects are less stable in overall development, sometimes disapearing due to only 395 having small development teams working on them. This is not to say to never use FOSS projects but a point to be considered. 396 397 \subsection{My personal thoughts} 398 After reading this paper, one can hopefully see there is some benefit to the use of free software by developers and privacy experts, as it clearly tends 399 more to their needs, and is developed with them in mind, unlike alternative proprietary software. It is clear that it is a growing space, with 400 more people entering, including non technical users, only getting better for specific use cases and more generic ones even given the draw-backs previously mentioned. 401 402 For me FOSS has become the only way I enjoy computers, I have found the projects I like to use, made friends, and bettered my skills as a developer. It keeps me in control. 403 404 \newpage 405 \printbibliography 406 } 407 \end{document}