| | 28 | Use [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html Free Software] on your TPC to the maximum extent possible. Free software provides you with auditable code, potential for customization for your particular usage patterns, and reduces the extent to which you can be "locked-in" to a vendor with whom you have no shared values or politics. |
| | 29 | |
| | 30 | Free software also has the advantage that it usually has no explicit monetary cost. This is a technical advantage, because it allows you to evaluate the tools before using them without risking a financial loss. And it also offers a financial advantage if you commit to learning the tool, because you won't need to pay for the initial tool acquisition or upgrades. These financial advantages are slight in comparison with the technical and political advantages of free software, because the majority of the cost of a tool is in your time spent learning how to manipulate it to do what you want quickly, reliably, and conveniently. |
| | 31 | |
| | 32 | When you do find yourself using non-free software, ask yourself: |
| | 33 | * Do i need to use this tool? |
| | 34 | * Are there free tools that can accomplish a given task? |
| | 35 | * If so, what factors are keeping me from using the free tools? Have i communicated those blockers to any development team working on (or with the capacity to work on) those tools? |
| | 36 | * If no such free software is available, what is the closest available free tool? What else does it need to do to meet my needs? Have i communicated those needs to any development team working on those tools? |
| | 37 | * If nothing free even comes close, have i documented and published the fact that i'm using a non-free tool, and would rather use a free one? |
| | 38 | |
| | 39 | |
| | 41 | |
| | 42 | Customize your TPC! It takes a little bit of time investment on your part, but that little bit of time can pay off big if you use a computer as a TPC. Because the TPC is your primary interface to the digital world, you can always count on your customizations and shortcuts to be available to you, so time spent customizing is time you save over the years ahead doing the things you do most often. |
| | 43 | |
| | 44 | If you find yourself doing a task at the TPC that seems boring or repetitive, ask yourself: |
| | 45 | |
| | 46 | * When was the last time i did something like this? |
| | 47 | * How are these tasks similar? How do they differ? |
| | 48 | * If i could have the computer figure out how to take care of tasks like this, what would i ask it to do? Can i make this framing question fairly concise while keeping it clear? |
| | 49 | * With the above framing question in mind, have i looked for software that meets this need? |
| | 50 | * Have i asked other people for help? |
| | 51 | * If i can't find any such software, have i published my framing question in a forum frequented by people who might do similar tasks? |
| | 52 | * Have i published my framing question in a forum frequented by people who might build such tools? |
| | 53 | * Have i tried to build a similar tool myself? |
| | 54 | |
| | 55 | Sharing your successful (and not so successful) customizations -- along with the reasoning behind them -- with your friends and allies is a good way to help out, and to get other tips that might in turn help you. |
