Open Software is More Than a Philosophy - The Roll Out

Jan 28, 2026 Comments Roland Taylor (RolandiXor) The Roll Out

When we think “open-source”, we often think “a belief system, a preference, or a vibe”. I see it differently. Open software is a powerful force of technological resilience. You can inspect it, tweak it, fork it, and build on it without asking permission, because that’s part of the software model.

When people really recognise that software ownership is their right, something interesting happens. They start taking responsibility for the software they depend on. They fix bugs, write docs, maintain forks, and share improvements so other people don’t have to struggle alone.

Is it perfect? No. But above all, it’s a more accountable model. That accountability drives one of open-source software’s chief superpowers: continuity. And because the work happens openly, you also get compatibility and transparency, which means fewer surprises, more scrutiny, and more ways to deal with bad decisions.

Tech Insight: Open-source is a social good

With open software, you don’t just “use” the tool. You can own it: keep it, study it, archive it, and carry it forward.

That’s the social good. It turns users into stewards.

When Windows 10 support ended on October 14, 2025, it forced many people into a conundrum: their hardware was still fine, but their software was suddenly “obsolete” and unsupported. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last.

Commercial software has a shelf life, and there’s a real incentive to replace it and completely cut it off from support once that window closes. So what happens when your software platform kicks you out? You become a digital refugee.

Open-source provides a sanctuary

When the bigger digital platforms send you packing, that’s typically the end of the line, but it doesn’t have to be. In the land of open software, it’s not a crime to make things work on platforms they were never meant for. As a matter of fact, it’s a culture. Truthfully, it’s an expression of accessibility and respect for human rights. It’s giving people room to move on without losing their livelihood.

Take Wine for example. Wine is a compatibility layer that allows Windows software to run on other UNIX-like operating systems, such as Linux. It works by translating Windows-specific system calls into something the host system can understand. It’s not perfect, but it works well enough that many popular apps and tools built exclusively for Windows can run quite smoothly on Linux.

Affinity as a kind of case study

Many users have turned to Canva's (formerly Serif's) Affinity after Adobe introduced prohibitive subscription models that even punish you just for cancelling. Yet, many creators no longer feel safe in continuing to entrust their work and livelihood to Microsoft (through Windows), especially with forced features like Recall and the required Microsoft account in recent years.

This is why dedicated developers have been polishing Wine compatibility, so tools like Affinity can run on Linux, where many creators are turning in droves. You can see my review of their efforts in my It’s FOSS article.

Another example of this is in the recent announcement of a patch that brings support for installing Adobe’s Creative Suite on Linux via Wine.

As of Wine-Staging 11.1, these are available for testing, less than a month after being announced. Granted, only older versions of Creative Suite are known to run smoothly at this time (up to the 2021 edition), but in an industry where it’s common to rely on older software due to in-house custom solutions, this is still a crucial development.

Since Wine is open-source, interested parties can help preserve backwards and forwards compatibility for the software they rely on. That beats hoping a company won’t break what once worked just to make way for something nobody asked for, and if they do, the community can always fork and try again.

Transparency makes open systems self-correct

And this is where transparency stops being a slogan and starts being a feature. When the work happens in the open, changes leave a trail. The discussion is public, the fixes are public, and if someone tries to sneak in something harmful or self-serving, it usually doesn’t last long because people can inspect, challenge, revert, or fork.

This is why, even if you make your living inside proprietary ecosystems, open-source matters even if you don’t like or understand it. It keeps your options alive when software vendors don’t.

Practical tip: Don’t wait for the rug pull

Subscribe to the release notes for the tools you depend on. If something major changes, you’ll hear it early and you’ll have time to adjust instead of scrambling.

Here’s what I’ve published recently:

It’s FOSS

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Thanks for reading.
Catch you in the next Roll Out!
Roland Taylor (RolandiXor)

Roland Taylor (RolandiXor)

Bringing the human touch to open-source, design, and creative storytelling, with insights and helpful lessons along the way.

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