When people make the argument that open source software lets you make your software do exactly what you want and nothing else, I am sure lots of people think “oh great, now if I knew how to code C++ I could spend hours putting in and taking out features I do or don’t want. Recently, however, a clear example of why choice in your software is important came up.

As you know, Microsoft already has Windows Genuine Advantage, which attempts to verify that your copy of Windows is legitimate when you install and every time you update your PC. Now, Apple has filed a patent that appears to be something similar, according to OSWeekly. This does not mean that Apple will implement what is in their patent, it just means they are thinking about it.

The point is, if you rely on closed-source software, you have the threat of some form of DRM (digital rights management) that, as we have seen with Windows Genuine Advantage, has a high potential to mess up users trying to do completely legal things. If you don’t believe me, anyone that tried to update or activate Windows for several days a while ago was marked as non-genuine, because Microsoft’s servers went down. This was a while ago, but it could happen again at any time. In other words, whenever you update your legal Windows installation, you are taking a risk of losing functionality if Windows’s servers fail again. This is unlikely, but it could, and has, happened.

If you use open-source software, on the other hand, and the maker tries to put in some sort of DRM like this, you can expect that someone will simply fork (i.e. create an offshoot version of) the project and remove the DRM. That is why the choice of open source is important, no matter what your skills.

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