.:FREE SOFTWARE
Introduction
"Free software" is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of "free" as in "free speech" .
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.
More precisely, it means that the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
- Freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms.
Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere.
Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission to do so.
You should also have the freedom to make modifications and use them privately in your own work or play, without even mentioning that they exist. If you do publish your changes, you should not be required to notify anyone in particular, or in any particular way.
The freedom to run the program means the freedom for any kind of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer system,
for any kind of overall job and purpose, without being required to communicate about it with the developer or any other specific entity.
In this freedom, it is theuser's purpose that matters, not the developer's purpose; you as a user are free to run the program for your purposes,
and if you distribute it to someone else, she is then free to run it for her purposes, but you are not entitled to impose your purposes on her.
The freedom to redistribute copies must include binary or executable forms of the program, as well as source code, for both modified and unmodified versions.
(Distributing programs in runnable form is necessary for conveniently installable free operating systems.) It is OK if there is no way to produce a binary or executable form for a certain program
(since some languages don't support that feature), but you must have the freedom to redistribute such forms should you find or develop a way to make them.
In order for freedoms 1 and 3 (the freedom to make changes and the freedom to publish improved versions) to be meaningful,
you must have access to the source code of the program. Therefore, accessibility of source code is a necessary condition for free software.
Obfuscated "source code" is not real source code and does not count as source code.
Freedom 3 includes the freedom to release your modified versions as free software.
A free license may also permit other ways of releasing them;
in other words, it does not have to be a copyleft license.
However, a license that requires modified versions to be nonfree does not qualify as a free license.
In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be permanent and irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong;
if the developer of the software has the power to revoke the license,
or retroactively change its terms, without your doing anything wrong to give cause, the software is not free.
The free software movement is one of the most successful social movements to emerge in the past 25 years, driven by a worldwide community of ethical programmers dedicated to the cause of freedom and sharing. But the ultimate success of the free software movement depends upon teaching our friends, neighbors and work colleagues about the danger of not having software freedom, about the danger of a society losing control over its computing.
What is Free Software? What is Open Source?
Free Software, as used in this web site, refers to software distributed in source form which can be freely modified and redistributed, or freely modifiable and redistributable software.
It does not refer to zero-cost software. This usage of the name "Free Software" was common in the Unix world and recently introduced to the general computer community.
Free Software is also referred to as Freed Software, Liberated Software (software libre) or FRS (freely redistributable software).
"Open Source" is a marketing name for Free Software, coined in Feb 1998 as an attempt to overcome the confusion over the word "free" in the English language.
Open Source refers to the fact that the source code of Free Software is open to and for the world to take, to modify and to reuse.
The precise meaning of Free Software is spelled out in the Debian Free Software Guidelines or the Free Software Definition while Open Source is defined officially by the Open Source Definition.
Open Source and Free Software refer to, originally the same (around Feb 1998), but now different but largely similiar, set of software, but they emphasize different rationals;
see Why ``Free Software'' is better than ``Open Source'' for more explanation.
What is free software and why is it so important for society?
Free software is software that gives you the user the freedom to share, study and modify it.
We call this free software because the user is free.
To use free software is to make a political and ethical choice asserting the right to learn, and share what we learn with others.
Free software has become the foundation of a learning society where we share our knowledge in a way that others can build upon and enjoy.
Currently, many people use proprietary software that denies users these freedoms and benefits.
If we make a copy and give it to a friend, if we try to figure out how the program works,
if we put a copy on more than one of our own computers in our own home, we could be caught and fined or put in jail.
That's what's in the fine print of the license agreement you accept when using proprietary software.
The corporations behind proprietary software will often spy on your activities and restrict you from sharing with others.
And because our computers control much of our personal information and daily activities,
proprietary software represents an unacceptable danger to a free society.
The GNU Operating System and the Free Software Movement
What if there were a worldwide group of talented ethical programmers voluntarily committed to the idea of writing and sharing software with each other
and with anyone else who agreed to share alike?
What if anyone could be a part of and benefit from this community even without being a computer expert or knowing anything about programming?
We wouldn't have to worry about getting caught copying a useful program for our friends-because we wouldn't be doing anything wrong.
In fact, such a movement exists, and you can be part of it.
The free software movement was started in 1983 by computer scientist Richard M. Stallman, when he launched a project called GNU, which stands for "GNU is Not UNIX",
to provide a replacement for the UNIX operating system-a replacement that would respect the freedoms of those using it.
Then in 1985, Stallman started the Free Software Foundation, a nonprofit with the mission of advocating and educating on behalf of computer users around the world.
There are now many variants or 'distributions' of this GNU operating system using the kernel Linux.
We recommend those GNU/Linux distributions that are 100% free software; in other words, entirely freedom-respecting.
Today, free software is available for just about any task you can imagine. From complete operating systems like GNU,
to over 5,000 individual programs and tools listed in the FSF/UNESCO free software directory.
Millions of people around the world - including entire governments - are now using free software on their computers