What's so great about being open-source and free? 

  • Because that way the best code has a way better chance of becoming the most widely used -- and not the code with the biggest marketing budget or the right political connections or the most friends. 

  • And this free, open-source code tends to get written by people who actually care about the product and not about how fast they can shove it out the door to rake in more money. 

  • And the fact that the code is available for anybody and everybody to inspect greatly increases the code's odds of accomplishing what it's supposed to.  For example, if there's a mistake, somebody will eventually catch it.  And if somebody tries to sneak in spyware or crappy code, again, somebody will eventually catch it and fix it.  In this world, everything you do is out in the open and for all to see.  This tends to keep people honest and working for the common good.  Just like a good government should be run.

  • Being open source also benefits immensely from collective thought processes.  That's what the Internet is all about.  (For a good time, go to StumbleUpon.com.)

But that's just my interpretation of it.  You can make your own decisions, starting at the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

IF YOU ARE NEW to the concept of open source,
your first mission is to STOP browsing the web with
Microsoft's bloated, insecure piece of crap that is MS Internet Explorer....  They are in the business of making money and therefore their motives and your best interests may have little in common.  Go immediately to mozilla.org and download the open-source browser Firefox.  It's faster and more secure!

My all-time favorite open-source freeware (besides Firefox):  KeyNote.  As an information junkie, this information organizer is a MUST!  I use KeyNote's nested/hierarchical system to store writing ideas, films to see, snippets of text for research along with their URLs -- you name it -- all classified in a beautifully simple, flexible, and wonderfully intuitive work tool.  Powerful, elegant, really useful freeware.  KeyNote screenshots here.