reinhard
bd0b8a7772
"DOCTYPE" or "html lang=" or "begin page content" or "timestamp begin"). Changed h2 into h1 on a few occasions. Removed some very old outdated translations. Updated some other translations where the update was trivial. Changed FSF Europe into FSFE where I stumbled over it. svn path=/trunk/; revision=10098
144 lines
7.0 KiB
HTML
144 lines
7.0 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE - What is Free Software?</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 class="indent">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 GNU's Bulletin, vol. 1 no. 1 [<a name="ref1"
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href="#1">1</a>], published February 1986. In particular, four freedoms
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define [<a name="ref2" href="#2">2</a>] Free Software:</p>
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<ul>
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<li class="indent"><b>The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.</b>
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<p class="indent"> <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 class="indent"><b>The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to
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your needs.</b>
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<p class="indent"> <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 class="indent"><b>The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
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neighbor.</b>
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<p class="indent"> <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 class="indent"><b>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.</b>
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<p class="indent"> <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 class="indent">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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<h3>Terminology</h3>
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<p class="indent">English seems to be the only language in which such a strong ambiguity
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exists between freedom and price. When translated into other languages, Free
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Software becomes "logiciels libre" in French, "software libre" in
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Spanish, "software libero" in Italian, "Fri Software" in Danish or
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whatever is the equivalent term in the local language referring to
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freedom.</p>
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<b>Open Source</b>
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<p class="indent">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 name="ref3" href="#3">3</a>]</p>
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<p class="indent">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 name="ref4" href="#4">4</a>]</p>
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<b>Libre Software</b>
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<p class="indent"> 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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<h3>References</h3>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="1" href="#ref1">1</a>]
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<code class="footnote"><a name="ref2" href="http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull1.txt">http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull1.txt</a> (page 8)</code>
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</p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="2" href="#ref2">2</a>] For the full definition, please see
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<code class="footnote"><a name="ref4" href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html</a></code>
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</p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="3" href="#ref3">3</a>] For reference, see <!--<code class="footnote"--><a
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name="ref6"
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href="http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/faq.html">http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/faq.html</a><!--/code-->:
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<em>How is "open source" related to "free software"? The Open Source
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Initiative is a marketing program for free software. It's a pitch for
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"free software" on solid pragmatic grounds rather than ideological
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tub-thumping. The winning substance has not changed, the losing attitude
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and symbolism have.</em></p>
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<p class="footnote">[<a name="4" href="#ref4">4</a>] 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 "felt 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.</p>
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<p>More information about the importance of Free Software can be found
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<a href="/projects/wsis/fs.html">here</a>.</p>
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</body>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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