Everybody loves FREE! Computer vendors and software companies first started routinely charging for software licenses in the late 1970s.  In the early years of home computing, many of us learned from each other through meetings, books, magazines and sharing free software by mailing floppy disks to one another. The hidden cost then was a steep learning curve (free software ordinarily lacks user manuals or support services), and that anticipated updates might never be forthcoming. The Free Software Foundation (1985) and the Open Source Initiative (1998) continue to advocate free software availability to this day. Free software became widely available in the mid-1990s as internet access became commonplace. Continue reading →