Anyone having issues with the forum?

[dgdimick]

I never had account / login issues, but I do notice a bit of weirdness (guessing JavaScript) in the editing box with cursor jumping around, and also extra spaces getting inserted into my post (no matter how many times I delete them).

WOW, Trash-80, GREAT computer, learned BASIC on it back in 82'

Ended up getting a C-64, used it all they way into 86' or so.

To answer your Open Source Software question, Open Source Software allow a large number of people to work on the software, people that probably wouldn't be able to devote full-time work to the software, as well as will modify the software to have functions that a marketing department may not see the value of.

To give an example, and I'm going to simplify it greatly, back in the late 80's early 90's some guy in Finland didn't have the money to purchase a copy of Miniux, so he figured, "I'm a smart guy, why not make my own version", then it was, this is a lot of work, maybe I can get some other folks to help me out. Fast forward to today, and you have Linux, an Open Source Operating System.

I'm not going to go into what and OS is, other then to say, there are a LOT of extra applications that need to be written as "add-ons" that make an OS what it is, even a simple thing like "ping" is an application that needed to be written.

One HUGE advantage of Open Source is you get a LOT of people looking at the code, and finding and FIXING errors in the code, as well as SECURITY issues, AND FIXING THEM - a Closed Source OS, like MS Windows, only has a few people looking for bugs, security issues, as well as fixing them. An unknown security issues is what allows Bad People, to do Bad Things to your computer.

Sorry if this is a VERY Simplistic explanation, however, you asked a VERY complex question - It's a Damn good question, so pat yourself on the back for asking it.