Introduction
This speech is on a subject that most people have never given a thought to or are apathetic about. However, I, and many others, believe that it is vitally important and I hope to change your mind. That subject is free software.
The Benefits
No Planned Obsolescence
Proprietary software vendors often stop updates, force updates that downgrade or just brick old devices to force users to the newer model. Apple is a particularly egregious example.
Privacy
One can never be fully sure that proprietary software is not spying on the user, as no-one can externally verify any such claims. However, with free software, one can always tell by viewing the source code and if necessary make a spyware-free version, as was done for the text editor Visual Studio Code.
No Ulterior Motive
Since users can improve free software themselves, developers have no reason not to add a feature that benefits users. An example of this is standards. Operating systems and other software that complies with standards, such as POSIX, make programs written for them more portable and improve the learning curve of switching. Almost all free operating sytems conform to POSIX but Microsoft Windows does not becuase it would make much software easily portable to their competitors, which would benefit consumers.Just Better
Free software is often simply better than its proprietary counterparts. On the GNU/Linux operating system, which I wrote this speech with, one can write automated tasks to organise their files without external tools, fully customise their system and experience a faster computer due to no unnecessary unremovable bloat, none of which are possible on proprietary operating sytems like Windows.Why Not?
In my opinion, the main reason people do not us free software is that few personal computers come with a preinstalled free operating system and those that do are very high-end. As people have not heard of free software, they recommend proprietary software to others and the vicious cycle continues.
One major drawback that even I, a free software evangelist, struggle with is setting up software. For example, the software I wrote this with, called R Markdown, is much easier to use than Microsoft Word but a massive pain to set up. This is not so much a problem with free software itself, however, and more of a problem with the current free software that exists. Also, people have been trained as children to use proprietary software in schools and so never switch, even though free software is often easier to use.
Why Schools should Use Free Software
As I just alluded to, almost all schools (with exceptions of Venezuela and the Kerala state of India) teach children proprietary software, normally Windows. This is wrong for a number of reasons.
Firstly, even though Microsoft distributes Windows and Microsoft Office to schools without a fee, they do not do this to the general population. Thus, schools are doing their students, their future employers and society at large a huge disservice.
Secondly, schools are a place of learning. As such, students should be able to learn from the software they use to better themselves and improve their computer science knowledge. Proprietary software deprives students of this and puts them at a disadvantage over students from schools with free software.