Think about it. Your electronic devices, that you have with you right now, can connect to any other device on the planet over the internet, for desired deeds or otherwise nefarious activities. Do you know what code runs on your devices? Do you trust every developer and company that has made each and every single app you use?
考虑一下。 您现在隨心所及的电子设备可以通过互联网连接到地球上的任何其他设备，以进行预期的行为或其他邪恶活动。 你知道你的设备上运行什么代码吗？ 您是否信任制作您使用的每个应用程序的每个开发人员和公司？
In this day and age, it is truly a rarity to have control over what our own devices are doing. Companies and corporations create software that is proprietary and fully controlled by them; we users just accept their terms of service and privacy and unknowingly use what’s available for convenience. The code and control behind the software is completely hidden behind company walls. The advent of the internet has given us access to everything out there as much as it has given everything out there access to us.
在这个时代，控制我们自己的设备正在做的事情真的很罕见。 公司和企业创建的软件是专有的，并由他们完全控制；我们用户只是接受他们的服务条款和隐私，并在不知不觉中使用可用的东西来方便。 软件背后的代码和控制完全隐藏在公司墙后面。 互联网的出现让我们可以接触到外面的一切，就像它让我们可以接触到外面的一切一样。
Governments often require technology companies to implement backdoors for surveillance, and most companies comply. Yet what stops huge multi-trillion-dollar software companies from using our data in whichever way they desire?
政府经常要求科技公司实施监控后门，大多数公司都遵守了。 然而，是什么阻止了价值数万亿美元的大型软件公司以任何他们想要的方式使用我们的数据？
Whether that is selling your personal data to advertisers for a profit or allowing companies to track and build a profile around you across the web, there are rarely transparent policies or clear-cut regulations.
无论是将您的个人数据出售给广告商以获取利润，还是允许公司在网络上跟踪和建立您的个人资料，很少有透明的政策或明确的法规。
We pay the price of these, often free, online services, by giving up our privacy. This extends beyond just online services; the companies that build the hardware of the devices we use ourselves are subject to the same conditions.
我们通过放弃隐私来支付这些通常免费的在线服务的代价。 这不仅仅是在线服务；制造我们自己使用的设备硬件的公司也受制于相同的条件。
At what point will you be shown advertisements for pampers and pacifiers before you even know your wife is expecting? How much of your personal information do you want to be available for devastating identity theft if any of the hundreds of proprietary services you rely on is breached?
在你知道你妻子怀孕之前，什么时候你会看到呵护和奶嘴的广告？ 如果您依赖的数百项专有服务中的任何服务被泄露，您希望有多少个人信息可用于毁灭性的身份盗窃？
What is open source? What does it mean for you?
什么是开源？ 这对你来说意味着什么？
Publicly available, transparent and independent software; this is open source. With publicly available code, open-source software allows users not only to inspect everything the software is doing, but also to modify it in any way. While this might seem counter-intuitive in terms of profit, there are methods which allow open-source projects to still make money.
公开可用的、透明和独立的软件；这是开源的。 借助公开可用的代码，开源软件不仅允许用户检查软件正在做的一切，还可以以任何方式对其进行修改。 虽然在利润方面，这似乎有悖于直觉，但有一些方法可以让开源项目仍然赚钱。
That said, most open-source software continues to be freeware and funded by donations. Yet many come with just as much, if not more, functionality than commercial solutions. Most impressively perhaps, is how heavily corporates rely on open-source software to build their own proprietary (closed-source) services.
也就是说，大多数开源软件仍然是免费软件，由捐款资助。 然而，許多具有與商業解決方案一樣多的功能，如果不是更多的話。 也许最令人印象深刻的是，公司严重依赖开源软件来构建自己的专有（闭源）服务。
Fully 93.6 percent of the top 1 million websites today are hosted by open-source software. Some 90 percent of cloud infrastructure runs on open-source software and it’s done with one open-source software project alone; the Linux operating system. Dominating the enterprise market for its security and customisability, Linux is unmatched by closed-source solutions.
当今前100万个网站中，有93.6%是由开源软件托管的。 大约90%的云基础设施在开源软件上运行，它仅由一个开源软件项目完成；Linux操作系统。 Linux因其安全性和可定制性而主导了企业市场，是闭源解决方案无法比拟的。
That said, very few users, like me and you, are taking advantage of open-source software. The barriers to entering the world of open-source software are ever-lowering; consider what this could mean for you. Perhaps it’s protecting your own privacy from government-issued back doors (thank you, Edward Snowden) or taking control of hardware devices so that “software updates” don’t slow down and hamper them (we’re talking about you, Apple, and your hopes to drive sales for new models).
也就是说，很少有用户，比如我和你，利用开源软件。 进入开源软件世界的障碍正在不断降低；考虑这可能对您意味着什么。 也许这是在保护你自己的隐私免受政府发布的后门（谢谢你，爱德华·斯诺登）或控制硬件设备，这样“软件更新”就不会减慢和阻碍它们（我们谈论的是你，苹果，以及你推动新型号销售的希望）。
Governments provide very little to no accountability from companies to customers; corporates have free reign in how their software and hardware operate and the data their services collect. Using open-source software alternatives is one of the few ways to ensure true privacy and control; it is made for the people, by the people.
政府很少或没有向客户问责；企业可以自由支配其软件和硬件的运作方式以及其服务收集的数据。 使用开源软件替代品是确保真正隐私和控制的少数方法之一；它是由人民为人民制造的。
The Compromise: Technicality, Profit & Active Development.
妥协：技术性、利润和积极发展。
The current reality of open-source software is a three-way compromise between the added technicality, the non-profit model of open-source and how consequently that sometimes hinders active development.
开源软件的当前现实是增加的技术性、开源的非营利模式以及有时阻碍积极发展的三方妥协。
The dual cores of successful open-source software are frequent updates and maintenance, yet without the profit incentive it is up to developers who donate their time and expertise and the popularity of open-source projects to bring about incentives that drive community-driven development. This inevitably raises the barrier for small, open-source projects to become usable in critical applications, and sometimes leads to an abundance of abandoned open-source projects.
成功的开源软件的双重核心是频繁的更新和维护，但如果没有利润激励，就由开发人员来贡献他们的时间和专业知识以及开源项目的受欢迎程度来推动社区驱动的发展。 这不可避免地提高了小型开源项目在关键应用程序中可用的障碍，有时还会导致大量废弃的开源项目。
As a consequence, there are licences that come with open-source software which, by law, limit what contributions must be made and whether open-source projects may be used for profit. And this is true for each specific open-source project; there are limitations and obligations to using it.
因此，有一些许可证附带开源软件，根据法律，这些许可证限制了必须做出的贡献，以及开源项目是否可以用于盈利。 每个特定的开源项目都是如此；使用它有限制和义务。
Lastly, perhaps the most significant compromise for normal users is the added technicality that open-source software often brings; being fully customisable means that setting up and using open-source software is often cumbersome or impossible for the non-tech savvy. As the open-source community is itself technically skilled, there is little reason to put effort towards accessibility and ease-of-use within most projects. This is reason alone for most individuals to opt for proprietary, but easy-to-use commercial software from closed-source corporates.
最后，对于普通用户来说，也许最重要的妥协是开源软件经常带来的额外技术性；完全可定制意味着设置和使用开源软件对于非技术精通者来说往往繁琐或不可能。 由于开源社区本身在技术上很熟练，因此几乎没有理由在大多数项目中努力提高可访问性和易用性。 这是大多数人选择来自封闭源公司的专有但易于使用的商业软件的原因。
Will You Take Control?
你会控制吗？
While you may not have control over how companies use your data and your devices, it is your choice which services and software you use. You have the power to choose open-source software and to benefit from control, customisability, and privacy. It can be as simple as choosing an open-source application over a closed source solution (eg. Using VLC as your media player) or as extensive as exclusively using open-source software. The choice is yours.
虽然您可能无法控制公司如何使用您的数据和设备，但您选择使用哪些服务和软件。 您有能力选择开源软件，并从控制、可定制性和隐私中受益。 它可以像选择开源应用程序而不是闭源解决方案一样简单（例如 使用VLC作为您的媒体播放器）或完全使用开源软件。 选择权在你。
Although China tends to create their own proprietary software solutions, there has been a wide adoption of open-source software and hardware. This thriving community of developers, with lower brand-loyalty and lower consumerism mentality towards tech companies when compared to the west, is an environment more open to open-source technologies.
尽管中国倾向于创建自己的专有软件解决方案，但开源软件和硬件已被广泛采用。 这个蓬勃发展的开发人员社区，与西方相比，对科技公司的品牌忠誠度和消费主义心态较低，是一个对开源技术更开放的环境。
Is control of your own data and devices something significant for you? If so, evaluate the compromises of open-source solutions. Share the knowledge that may help us be one step closer to a world where large corporates and governments don’t take control away from us, the users.
控制自己的数据和设备对您来说重要吗？ 如果是这样，请评估开源解决方案的妥协。 分享可能帮助我们离大公司和政府不会从我们（用户）手中夺走控制权的世界更近一步的知识。
