Free software doesn’t have to mean inferior quality or illegal downloads.

A growing number of software developers are now offering quality products online and free to all.

Central Queensland University has become an advocate of what is now known as open source software through the establishment of its Centre for Open Source Development.

The objective of the Centre is to promote the use of open source software within the University and the wider community by providing a website linking people to a range of software available.

Recently appointed Director of the Centre, Neville Richter said: “Whether you are still at school, studying at university, working in a profession or just using the Internet for fun, open source software will have an impact on your daily lives.”.

“Many people are already using open source software and do not know it. Many companies, governments and educational institutions are adopting open source solutions to reduce their Total Cost of Ownership commitments.”.

The open source software movement is growing globally with many government and private organizations adopting open source software solutions.

In an open source environment, developers provide software under a variety of licenses, most of which are free. After releasing software, the community who uses the software has a lot of input into further developments, by suggesting improvements back to the developers and even becoming part of the team to produce enhancements.

The motivation behind developing open source software varies. Some programmers promote their programming skills by distributing software, others do it as a hobby. Many firms develop basic software packages, and then \'sell\' their expertise in customising, maintaining and training others who use their systems.

Some open source software you might have heard of includes: OpenOffice (Office suite of word processor, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, drawing, database software) which enables you to read and write Microsoft files; Firefox and SeaMonkey (web browsers); Drupal and Mambo (content management systems) and MySQL or PostgreSQL (Databases).

“Open Source software has made its biggest impact on server software to date, but this is changing with end users becoming more aware of open source alternatives,” Mr Richter said.

“Suppliers of PCs and laptops are also beginning to supply systems with open source software to reduce costs and stay competitive.”.

CQU hopes to provide industry with short courses on open source software to increase the awareness of open source products; develop open source software with industry, and to build research teams and partnerships which benefit all parties involved.

Mr Richter has over 15 years\' experience developing and teaching course materials in network administration, network management and security and has developed the ADIOS Linux Live CD.

For details: http://os.cqu.edu.au/open/about.html .

Photo: Director of the Centre for Open Source Development Neville Richter.