What's in a Name?

The name chosen for this project, Alternate Route, is meant to convey several messages. Every night when I drive home from work, I hear the traffic reporter on the radio suggest alternate routes to avoid traffic snarls. The alternate route is a path that avoids obstacles. People often take the scenic route when vacationing. This alternate route may not be the most direct path to their destination, but it is a route they enjoy traveling. When you reach a fork in the road you have to choose which way to go. You can go left, you can go right, or you can stray from the beaten path. The choice is yours.

Open Source Software is very similar to the alternate routes we encounter every day. It avoids the obstacles created by closed software systems. It is a different way of creating software products that some developers enjoy. But most importantly, it preserves the freedom to choose how you will use, adapt, and share software.