03/27/08 Green Software

Green software? Even with everyone jumping on the green bandwagon this one seems a bit farfetched. Mozilla Firefox has recently touted their software as "organic". And just how is software considered organic? Good question. This is where the term organic appears to have been modified to fit a "branding" term. In other words, it sounds cool. In today's consumer culture the term organic is a safety hot button. If it has organic in the name it must be better, right? To most of us organic means all natural and chemical free. The only part of this organic definition that applies to Mozilla's software is the word free. Free software is software designed to give the user the freedom to share, study and modify it. It is called free because there is no cost involved and the user is free of the corporate giant. So by all rights Mozilla can claim that their software is safe, user friendly, and sustainable. As far as being organic, well I guess that is all in the mind of the consumer.