165 lines
7.5 KiB
HTML
165 lines
7.5 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<head>
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<title>What is Free Software? – FSFE</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>What is Free Software?</h1>
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<p>Free in Free Software is referring to freedom, not price. Having been used
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in this meaning since the 80s, the first documented complete definition
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appears to be the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull1.txt">GNU's
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Bulletin, vol. 1 no. 1</a>, published February 1986. In particular, four
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freedoms <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">define</a> Free
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Software:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><h3>The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.</h3>
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<p> <em>Placing restrictions on the use of Free Software, such
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as time ("30 days trial period", "license expires January 1st, 2004")
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purpose ("permission granted for research and non-commercial
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use", "may not be used for benchmarking") or
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geographic area ("must not be used in country X") makes a program
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non-free.</em></p>
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</li>
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<li><h3>The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to
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your needs.</h3>
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<p> <em>Placing legal or practical restrictions on the
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comprehension or modification of a program, such as mandatory purchase
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of special licenses, signing of a Non-Disclosure-Agreement (NDA) or -
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for programming languages that have multiple forms or representation
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- making the preferred human way of comprehending and editing a program
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("source code") inaccessible also makes it proprietary (non-free).
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Without the freedom to modify a program, people will remain at the mercy
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of a single vendor.</em></p>
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</li>
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<li><h3>The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
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neighbor.</h3>
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<p> <em>Software can be copied/distributed at virtually no
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cost. If you are not allowed to give a program to a person in need,
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that makes a program non-free. This can be done for a charge, if you so
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choose.</em></p>
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</li>
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<li><h3>The freedom to improve the program, and release your
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improvements to the public, so that the whole community
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benefits.</h3>
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<p> <em>Not everyone is an equally good programmer in all
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fields. Some people don't know how to program at all. This freedom
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allows those who do not have the time or skills to solve a problem to
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indirectly access the freedom to modify. This can be done for a
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charge.</em></p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>These freedoms are rights, not obligations, although respecting these
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freedoms for society may at times oblige the individual. Any person can
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choose to not make use of them, but may also choose to make use of all of
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them. In particular, it should be understood that Free Software does not
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exclude commercial use. If a program fails to allow commercial use and
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commercial distribution, it is not Free Software. Indeed a growing number of
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companies base their business model completely or at least partially on Free
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Software, including some of the largest proprietary software vendors. Free
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Software makes it legal to provide help and assistance, it does not make it
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mandatory.</p>
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<h2 id="terminology">Terminology</h2>
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<p>Free Software is the original term for software that respects freedom, and
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there are <a href="/documents/whyfs.html">important reasons</a> why this
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terminology continues to be used today. Free Software connotes freedom, and
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when translated there is a clear distinction between freedom and price. In
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French, Free Software becomes "logiciels libre", "software libre" in Spanish,
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"software libero" in Italian, and "Fri Software" in Danish.</p>
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<h3>Open Source</h3>
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<p>On February 3rd 1998, in the wake of Netscapes announcement to release their
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browser as Free Software, a group of people met in Palo Alto in the Silicon
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Valley and proposed to start a marketing campaign for Free Software using the
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term ``Open Source.'' The goal was to seek fast commercialisation of Free
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Software and acceptance of Free Software by the companies and venture
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capitalists of the booming new economy. As a means to this end, they made a
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conscious decision to leave aside all long-term issues (such as philosophy,
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ethics and social effects) related to Free Software, feeling these posed
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obstacles in the way of rapid acceptance by economy. They proposed to focus
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on technical advantages only<a class="fn" href="#fn">1</a>.</p>
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<p>Often used in good faith by people who refer to what Free Software stands
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for, the term "Open Source" - originally defined to mean the same thing as
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Free Software in terms of licenses and implementation - has seen inflationary
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usage. Nowadays, it is regularly used for everything between Free Software
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and the highly proprietary "Governmental Security Program" (GSP) by
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Microsoft<a class="fn" href="#fn">2</a>.</p>
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<h3>Libre Software</h3>
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<p> When the European Commission started dealing with Free Software on a
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regular basis, they sought to avoid the ambiguity of the English word "Free
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Software" and the misunderstandings of "Open Source" alike, which led to
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the adoption of a third term which has popped up occasionally since around
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1992: "Libre Software." This term has proven resistant to inflationary usage
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and is still used in an identical way to Free Software. So it may pose a
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solution for those who fear being misunderstood when speaking English.</p>
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<h2 id="fn">Footnotes</h2>
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<ol id="refs">
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<li>
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For reference, see <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20021217003716/http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/faq.html">OSI
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FAQ</a>
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: <em>"How is 'open source' related to 'free software'? The Open Source Initiative
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is a marketing program for free software. It's a pitch for 'free software'
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on solid pragmatic grounds rather than ideological tub-thumping. The
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winning substance has not changed, the losing attitude and symbolism
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have."</em> Outside this rather unkind FAQ item, the OSI
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and its supporters have generally avoided the term "Free Software".
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</li>
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<li>
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In this program
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governments and intergovernmental organisations pay substantial fees for a
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superficial look at some parts of Windows sourcecode in special Microsoft
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facilities. This may increase "perceived security" but is essentially useless -
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especially since they do not even know whether what they looked at is what
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they have on their computers. And of course it does not give them
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freedom.
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</li>
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</ol>
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<div class="related">
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<h2>Related content</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/freesoftware/basics/comparison.html">A comparison of the different terms for Free Software (Open Source, FOSS, FLOSS etc.)</a></li>
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<li><a href="/documents/whyfs.html">Why do we speak about Free Software</a></li>
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<li><a href="/freesoftware/basics/sourcecode.html">What is a 'source code'?</a></li>
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<li> <a href="/activities/os/os.html">What are 'Open Standards'?</a></li>
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<li><a href="/freesoftware/basics/4freedoms.html">How to explain the four freedoms of Free Software to children</a></li>
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<li><a href="/freesoftware/basics/gnuproject.html">What is the 'GNU project'?</a></li>
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<li><a href="/freesoftware/transcripts/rms-2009-05-22-eliberatica.html">Richard Stallman lecture on the meaning and importance of Free Software</a></li>
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<li><a href="/freesoftware/transcripts/rms-fs-2006-03-09.html">Richard Stallman lecture on the Free Software movement and the future of freedom</a></li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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</body>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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