ARFS
What is free software?
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Definition
Our free software definition is the same as
the
FSF's.
When a program is "free software" you can:
- 0. use the program
- 1. modify it
- 2. redistribute it
- 3. redistribute modified versions
As you can imagine, "modifying" implies that you have
access to the source code, which is the case with
free software.
If a program is licensed under a free software license
or in the public domain, it might not be free software:
If the source code is unavailable, rights 1 and 3 are
only theory and the program is in fact not free.
Definition: Software that is not free is called
proprietary software.
What it means for users
Some properties of free software, that are consequences
of the definition:
- Use of free software is not limited. There is no time limit.
You can use it for commercial purposes if you want. This is
freedom #0 (see above).
- The program costs nothing, because even if the author asked money
for it, anyone that has the program would have the right to copy
it and send it to anyone. So, in practice, free software costs
nothing. This is because of freedom #2.
- With free software, you are not dependant on the author's decisions.
If he decides that from now onwards you must pay to have his program,
and that he no longer makes it free software, anyone can still take
the last free release of the program and continue to improve it.
That is because of freedom #3.
- Anyone can read the source code of free programs, so authors of
free software cannot hide spywares in it.
This if because of freedom #1 (because right to modify
implies right to read the source code).
- Authors of free software can put advertising in it,
but as anyone is allowed to modify it (freedom #1), someone
could remove the advertising and distribute the modified version
(freedom #3).
Examples you may have heard about
Some free programs start to be well known, for example
Firefox (a web browser), OpenOffice.org (an office suite),
Linux (an operating system) and Thunderbird (a mail client).
Why use free software?
You should now read: Why use free software?
$Id: free.cgi 201 2008-04-27 06:53:48Z almacha $
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