By John C. Rucker (Page 10 of 10)
By now, hopefully you've seen how Free Software can really benefit your library if you're looking for a way to filter your web traffic. Sometimes, you have to delve into some complicated parts, but you'll learn much along the way and the results are well worth it. Here at the Branch District Library we've been using this setup since January 2004 and we are very happy with it. And we have saved thousands of dollars as a result!
Although Free Software often costs nothing, it's name is capitalized to signify the concept of Freedom. You have the freedom to use the software how you see fit, not how a software company tells you. You can modify Free Software to fit your needs perfectly. The fact that you paid nothing for the software used in this tutorial doesn't mean that this software is worthless, however. On the contrary, these programs, and many others like it, are the backbone of the Internet and vital to many multi-billion-dollar businessess.
If you find Free Software useful, I encourage you to do something to give a little back to the community. There's plenty you can do: use the software and let the developers know if you find a bug, help write the documentation for a program, write a tutorial like this one, or just spread the word about the alternatives to proprietary software.
Of course, monetary donations go a long way towards keeping these projects afloat, too. Here are the links to the donation pages for the major software packages used in this tutorial. Contributions to some are even tax-deductable in the United States.
And here are a couple of less obvious projects that made our work in this tutorial with all of the above software possible:
Well, that's it! I hope you found this tutorial helpful. If you have any feedback, let's hear it.
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