The world of corporate computing seems to be preparing for a paradigm shift. Free and open source software movement claims to be making fresh inroads into corporates. Microsoft has also upped its ante, claiming lower cost of ownership and the patents open source software violates.

FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) is arguably one of the best examples of open, collaborative, internationally distributed production and development. FLOSS provides numerous benefits for developing countries, such as low cost, adaptability, and a free-of-charge high quality training environment, as shown by the FP6 FLOSSWORLD study.

It might be a day too late for Valentine's Day, but it's never too late to show your love for Free Software. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) asked users to show their love for Free Software on Valentine's Day — but there's no reason why that can't run all year long.

At stake here is far more than SCO's existence. It is the front line in a battle between two diametrically opposed ideologies. In the red corner we have open source - the idea that software should be freely available and that it is best developed by a community of interested individuals who incrementally add to it for the common good.

We all know we can use open source software without paying, but the real question is: what compels people to buy free stuff? Most widely used free and open source software can also be purchased. We are not speaking of alternative commercial licensing, in this context. We are talking about purchasing support contracts and add-ons for open source software.

" The idea of open source is that allowing users to change and redistribute the software will make it more powerful and reliable. But this is not guaranteed. Developers of proprietary software are not necessarily incompetent. Sometimes they produce a program which is powerful and reliable, even though it does not respect the users’ freedom.

If everything is free in the Land with No IP - not TCP/IP, but rather intellectual property - then it stands to reason that IT managers and programmers in China would love open source software.

This weekend I was reminded of another reason that I love open source software: A transparent development process. Only in open source software will you be able to talk directly to the developers of a software project and give them your input. This is one of the reasons that open source projects tend to focus specifically on the requirements of the users. Let me tell you my story...

Why not make this February 14th a very special Valentine's Day? On Valentine's Day, FSFE calls on Free Software users everywhere to show their love for Free Software. It is the perfect occasion to show our love for Free Software and the possibility to use computers in freedom.