Free software
Free software is software that respects users’ freedom to run, study, modify and redistribute it, with or without changes
What it means, how it is used and where it comes up, with its related concepts.
What it is and how it works
The idea was championed by Richard Stallman, who announced the GNU project in 1983 and founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985. It is summed up in four freedoms: to use the program for any purpose, to study how it works and adapt it, which requires access to the source code, to distribute copies and to distribute modified versions. Licences such as the GPL protect those freedoms.
“Free” refers to freedom, not price: free software can be sold, and a program available at no cost may not be free in this sense. The open-source movement shares almost all the same licences but advocates them for practical reasons, such as quality or collaboration, whereas free software frames the issue as an ethical one.
Also known as
Libre software, FOSS
Topics