Open Forum Free/Libre/Open Source Software

(FLOSS) has become a competitive alternative to commercial software in almost all areas of computing. It has become more and more common to find FLOSS software in schools, hospitals, governments, businesses, and homes. The Linux operating system, the Firefox Web browser, and the Apache Web server are just some examples of FLOSS software that is being used on an increasing basis. There are many obvious advantages to FLOSS: the freedom to tinker with the code, the ability to observe exactly what the software is doing, and the lack of dependence on a commercial provider. As well, FLOSS has a strong international community of programmers who volunteer countless hours to produce this software. With so many obvious advantages, the problems with FLOSS are often overlooked. Though the FLOSS movement claims to be open to everyone, many users and developers alike feel that the community is not as welcoming as it claims to be. This exclusion creates a gap between users and FLOSS developers, and this gap fosters software usability problems. It is becoming increasingly common for corporations to participate in FLOSS projects; however, in this article we are focusing on issues that arise from projects produced primarily by self-governed volunteers. This is both because corporate software development is already well researched, and because it is the strong volunteer community that makes FLOSS so unique