Wikipedia
This article is about Free Software as defined by the sociopolitical Free Software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware.'' For other uses, see free software (disambiguation). Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation, is software which can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. Freedom from such restrictions is central to the concept of "free software", such that the opposite of free software is proprietary software, and not software which is sold for profit, such as commercial software. Free software may sometimes be known as libre software, FLOSS, or open source software. Usage - To help distinguish ''Gratis versus Libre libre'' (freedom) software from ''Gratis versus Libregratis'' (zero price) software, Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Movement, developed the following explanation: "Free software is a matter of liberty not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech', not as in 'free beer'". More specifically, free software means that user (computing)computer users have the freedom to cooperate, and to control the software they use.Most free software is distributed gratis online, or off-line for the marginal cost of distribution, but this is not required, and people may sell copies for any price.The capitalized term "Open Source" is attached to a definition originally created in 1998 from Debian's rewrite of the GNU definition of "Free Software". As a result, nearly all Open Source programs are Free Software, but there are some exceptions.Although the open source and free software movements share almost identical license criteria and development practices, according to Stallman the respective philosophical values of the two movements are fundamentally different. Stallman endorses the terms Free/Libre/Open-Source Software ("FLOSS") and Free and Open Source Software ("F/OSS") to refer to "open source" and "free software" respectively, without necessarily choosing between or dividing the two camps, but he asks people to consider supporting the "free software" camp (see Open source vs. free software for more !information)."Freeware&qu ot;? is software made available ''free of charge'', but is generally proprietary, as users do not have the freedom to use, copy, study, modify or redistribute. Source code for freeware may or may not be published, and permission to distribute modified versions may or may not be granted, so freeware is ''gratis'', and not ''libre'' software.
History - The term free software preceeded the term open source software. Software and code was often freely traded among hackers but in the 1980s owners starting asserting copyright over their code effectively closing off this free exchange. The advent of the free software movement and the term free software was created by Richard Stallman in response to the closing off of this exchange.A brief history of Free Software: 1960s and 1970s - software was seen as an add-on supplied by mainframe vendors to make computers useful. Thus, programmers and developers frequently freely shared their software. This was especially common in large users groups, such as DECUS, the DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Users Group. Late 1970s - companies began routinely imposing restrictions on programmers with software license agreements. 1983 - Richard Stallman began the GNU project, founding the Free Software Foundation (FSF) two years later. gnu.org He introduced a "free software" definition and "copyleft", designed to ensure software freedom for all. cisn.metu.edu.tr
Free software licenses - According to Stallman and the FSF, "free" software licenses grant: the freedom to run the program for any purpose (called "freedom 0") the freedom to study and modify the program ("freedom 1") the freedom to copy the program so you can help your neighbor ("freedom 2") the freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits ("freedom 3")Freedoms 1 and 3 require source code access, because studying and modifying software without source code is extremely difficult and highly inefficient compared to modifying annotated source code.The FSF web site provides a list of many free software licenses. gnu.org The list is necessarily incomplete, because a license need not be known to the FSF in order to provide these freedoms."Proprietary software" is distributed under more restrictive software licenses. Copyright law and/or contract law restrict modification, duplication and redistribution by users; software released under a free software license rescinds most of these reserved rights.The FSF free software definition disregards price. Compact discCDs containing free software such as Linux distributionGNU/Linux distributions are commonly for sale. However, since the CD buyer still has the free software freedoms, it is free software. ''Free beer'' software (freeware) which includes restrictions that confict with the FSF definition are considered proprietary. For example, source code may be unavailable, redistributors may be prohibited charging fees, etc.Some people use "libre" to avoid the ambiguity of the word "free". However, these terms are mostly used within the free software movement and are slowly spreading.Variations on free software as defined by the FSF: Copyleft licenses, the GNU General Public License being the most prominent. The author retains copyright and permits redistribution and modification under terms to ensure that all modified versions remain free. Public domain software - the author has abandoned the copyright. Since public-domain software lacks copyright protection, it may be freely incorporated into any work, whether proprietary or free. BSD LicenseBSD-style licenses, so called because they are applied to much of the software distributed with the Berkeley Software DistributionBSD operating systems. The author retains copyright protection solely to disclaim warranty and require proper attribution of modified works, but permits redistribution and modification in ''any'' work, even proprietary ones.A copyright owner of copyleft-licensed software can produce and sell a version under any license, in addition to distributing the original version as free software. Many free software companies do this; this does ''not'' restrict any rights granted to the users of the copyleft version.All free software licenses must grant people all the freedoms discussed above. However, unless the applications' licenses are compatible, combining programs by mixing source code or directly linking binaries is problematic, because of license technicalities. Programs indirectly connected together may avoid this problem.
Examples of free software - The amount of free software is large and increasing.Notable free software projects: Operating system kernels: Linux, Berkeley Software DistributionBSD, and Darwin (operating system)Darwin GNU Compiler CollectionGCC compilers, GDB debugger and C programming languageC libraries Servers: BIND name server, Sendmail mail transport, Apache HTTP ServerApache web server, and Samba softwareSamba file server Relational database systems: MySQL and PostgreSQL. Programming languages: Perl, PHP, Python programming languagePython, Ruby programming languageRuby and Tcl. Graphical user interfaceGUI related: X Window System, GNOME and KDE desktop environments. OpenOffice.org office suite, Mozilla Application SuiteMozilla and Mozilla FirefoxFirefox web browsers and the GIMP graphics editor Typesetting and document preparation systems TeX and LaTeXSee the Free Software Directory gnu.org for a larger list.Much free software supports the non-free Microsoft Windows or non-free Unix platforms, and non-free software can support free platforms, although purists prefer all-free software on a free platform such as GNU/Linux.Free software packages constitute a software ecosystem where software provides services, resulting in mutual benefit: for instance, the Apache web server handling the HTTP protocol, using mod_python to provide dynamic content.
Social significance of free software - Soon after free software begins circulation, it becomes available at little to no cost. When free software spreads, its utility is constant, or even increases due to network effects. Thus, free software is a pure public good rather than a private good.Another way free software is thought to be significant to society is due to its freedoms that result in lower cost than proprietary software. Due to this fact free software is becoming popular in third world countries. Furthermore, the openness of free software eases !internationalization.Internati onal? cooperation through free association produces most free software.The Oekonux and Hipatia projects contend free association could produce everything.Free association is also used for wiki writing, such as Wikipedia and give-away shops.While the politics of Free Software are unclear it is clear that it has become not only economically but also politically significant. SCO CEO Darl McBride and others have tended to characterise Free Software as communist while others maintain that its economic footprint is largely free market oriented and therefore capitalist, particularly for businesses with a services model. It is perhaps more interesting to analyse Free Software's goals - its four freedoms - in terms of positive and negative liberty. Before proceeding, it is worth noting that a computer program is inanimate and therefore not political in its own right, when we speak of the politics of Free Software we seek to understand its social effects in the larger human context.The four freedoms are couched in positive language, simply, users are granted the "freedom to" run, modify and reproduce the software but not granted "freedom from" anything that might prevent them from doing so. This observation is flawed when free software licences are considered in contrast to the proprietary licencing alternative. Users are given the right to use software for any purpose and are therefore free from the protective clauses of proprietary licences that are designed to limit liability or increase profits for a single vendor. If users wish to employ a Free Software program to develop nuclear weapons or service the needs of 1000 colleagues then they are not prevented from doing so by contract but only by circumstances unrelated to the licence, such as local laws and computer hardware. Similarly, the freedom to modify a program and release your improvements can also be seen as protecting groups within society from external coercion by more powerful groups through the deployment of technical implementations that prevent certain kinds of communication or activity. As an example, users are granted sufficient rights that they can correct any technical flaws in the software that affect their choice of software product that they wish to use by adding features, removing incompatibilities or creating new versions with new interopability functions. It is this and related effects on the technology market that have tended to lead to a capitalist or right-wing interpretation.
Individual motivations - Individuals within a team typically have a wide variety of motivations.Stances on the relationship between free software and the existing capitalist economic system: Competition - free software and capitalism are incompatible, so more free software results in less capitalism. Inter-market competition - free software is a form of competition within capitalism. Copyright is governmental market restriction. Gift economy - status depends on gifts.
Relative security - There is controversy over the computer securitysecurity of free software vs. proprietary software (a major issue being security through obscurity). A popular relative security measurement is counting known unpatched security flaws. Generally, users of this method advise avoiding products which lack fixes for known security flaws, at least until a fix is available.
Free software controversies - The BitKeeper controversy in the free software movement illustrates the movement's major issues and points of view.Larry McVoy invited high-profile free software projects to use BitKeeper to attract paying users. In 2002 a controversial decision was made to use BitKeeper, a proprietary software product, to develop the Linux kernel, a free software project. The excerpt below illustrates why this proved to be a major source of controversy.:"McVoy made the program available gratis to free software developers. This did not mean it was free software for them: they were privileged not to part with their money, but they still had to part with their freedom. They gave up the fundamental freedoms that define free software: freedom to run the program as you wish for any purpose, freedom to study and change the source code as you wish, freedom to make and redistribute copies, and freedom to publish modified versions.:The Free Software Movement has said "Think of free speech, not free beer" for 15 years. McVoy said the opposite; he invited developers to focus on the lack of monetary price, instead of on freedom. A free software activist would dismiss this suggestion, but those in our community who value technical advantage above freedom and community were susceptible to it. ...:A free kernel, even a whole free operating system, is not sufficient to use your computer in freedom; we need free software for everything else, too. Free applications, free drivers, free BIOS: some of those projects face large obstacles -- the need to reverse engineer formats or protocols or pressure companies to document them, or to work around or face down patent threats, or to compete with a network effect. Success will require firmness and determination. A better kernel is desirable, to be sure, but not at the expense of weakening the impetus to liberate the rest of the software world." software.newsforge.com McVoy withdrew permission for gratis use by free software projects. Many in the free software movement see the whole affair as a vindication of Richard Stallman's principled position over the more utilitarian approach of Linus Torvalds.
See also - Free software magazine Free audio software Free game software Free/Libre/Open-Source Software Free Software Foundation Free software licenses GNU General Public Licence GNUGNU Project Open source Open source culture Open source vs. free software Software Freedom Day Open system (computing)Open system Open standard Open format Vendor lock-in Embrace, extend and extinguish Network effect Opendocument great summary of the new OASIS Opendocument format (ODF) to create an open system for business & public sector documents
External links - gnu.org - The Free Software Definition - published by FSF gnu.org - FSF's list of free software licenses, including clarifications on often confused non-free licenses gnu.org - FSF/UNESCO directory of free software packages gnu.org - The GNU philosophy pages gnu.org - FSF's comparison of "Open Source" and "Free Software" dwheeler.com - Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers! — David Wheeler's analysis of the advantages of OSS/FS.software distribution Category:Free softwareCategory:Application !softwareCategory:Softwarear:ب رمجيات? حرةbg:Свободен !софтуерzh-min-nan:Chū- iû? nńg-thébr:Lojissiel digorca:Programari lliurecs:Svobodný softwareda:Fri softwarede:Freie Softwarees:Software libreeo:Libera !programarofa:نرمافزا رهای? آزادfr:Logiciel libreko:자유 소프트웨어hr:Slobodan softverid:Perangkat lunak bebasia:Software libereis:Frjáls hugbúnaðurit:Software liberohe:תוכנה חופשיתku:Nivîsbariya azadlt:Laisvoji programinė įrangahu:Szabad szoftvernl:Vrije !softwareja:フリーソフト ェアno:Fri? programvareoc:Logicial liurepl:Free softwarept:Software livrero:Software liberru:Свободное программное !обеспечениеsimple:F ree? softwaresk:Slobodný softvérsl:Prosto programjefi:Vapaa ohjelmistosv:Fri programvaratl:Malayang !softwareth:ซอฟต์แ ร์เสรีtr:Özgür ? !yazılımzh:自由软件
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Websites
Thomas Lotze's personal web site
Site providing personal information as well as Free Software and Photographs by the owner.
http://www.thomas-lotze.de/
Security software news and downloads
daita.org is a project which provides various information about security software, security news and security articles
http://www.daita.org/
freesoft technologies ltd
freesoft is a professional software-solutions provider that distinguishes itself by solid experience and world-class quality. Our ultimate goal is helping our clients succeed, providing them a safe ride in today's bumpy software services road. freesoft is a permier software-solutions provider in the Arab world, providing consultation, customization, development, deployment, support, and training . We specialize in open source / Free software and GNU/Linux based systems, maximizing our value proposition by providing services on top of a free, and powerful software.
http://www.freesoft.jo/
BestTests.com
Free computer certification practice exams and study guides for MCSE, CCNA, MSDST, Comptia A+ and Comptia Network+
http://www.besttests.com/
Chicago Metalworks Radio
Chicago's true rock station, playing todays harder alternative rock to the most extreme underground death metal live 24/7 on the web.
http://www.metalworksradio.com/
THKMCS - Die Ultimative Website
THKMCS - Die Ultimative Website - Musik - Midi - Sequencer - Composer - Panel Memory - Sound Memory - Performance Pads - Future Presentation - KN7000 - KN6000 - KN6500 - KN5000 - KN3500 - KN3000 - KN2600 - KN2400 - KN2000 - KN1200 - KN1000 - KN800 - KN750
http://www.thkmcs.de/
Clan K1ck eSports Club Multigaming - Counter-Strike,Quake 4,Xbox,Enemy Territory,Counter-Strike Source,Unreal Tournament 2004,Playstation 2,Call Of Duty,Soldier Of Fortune 2,MOHAA,Warcraft 3,Pro Evolution Soccer 5,Dead or Alive,Need For Speed. Fragging since 1998
Multigaming Clan K1ck is an eSports Club. Gaming news section. Counter-Strike,Quake 4,Enemy Territory,Counter-Strike Source,Xbox,Unreal Tournament 2004,Playstation 2,Call Of Duty,Soldier Of Fortune 2,Mohaa,Pro Evolution Soccer 5,Dead or Alive,Need For Speed. Fragging since 1998
http://www.k1ck.com/
Manuales Gratis - Top Tutoriales
Manuales gratis y Tutoriales gratis preparados para su descarga. SQL Server, Office, Windows XP Server los manuales que necesites completamente GRATIS
http://www.toptutoriales.com/
Sim Online Racing Series
Online Stock Car racing league, which brings the best of the best together each week to race for cash!
http://www.sorsracing.net/
Winners Table
Online poker and backgammon guide with bonus codes, tournament schedules, freeroll listings and poker articles.
http://www.winnerstable.com/
out of obscure
Download complete MP3 Tracks of our artists or listen to a preview of them through our Live Stream
http://www.obscure.ch/
Free Software Downloads
Directory of free and trial softwares that you can download online.
http://www.goloads.com/
Projecto Adamastor
Projecto Português de Manutenção e Execução de Áreas Linux
http://www.adamastor.org/
DataReel
Datareel is a comprehensive cross-platform C++ development kit used to build multi-threaded database and communication applications. C++ is a programming language that produces fast executing compiled programs and offers very powerful programming capabilities. Unlike interpreted languages such as JAVA and PERL the C++ language by itself does not contain built-in programming interfaces for database, communications, and multi-threaded programming. By using DataReel you can extend the power of the C++ programming language by using high-level programming interfaces for database, communications, and multi-threaded programming.
http://www.datareel.com/
Hotwinfiles
The hottest place to download software on the net. Utilities, Ipod tools, DVD Tools, free download
Http://www.hotwinfiles.com
Westerna.org
All about mobile phones.
http://www.westerna.org/
Logilab
Python, Free Software, Debian, Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Computing, etc.
http://www.logilab.com/
galerie musique.com
1er Musée d'Instruments de Musique du Web. Un portail pour tous les musiciens et mélomanes, d'ici et d'ailleurs, d'hier et d'aujourd'hui
http://www.galerie-musique.com/
Shareware software resource, search and browse for free downloadable files.
Free software resource - Features a variety of shareware categorized by topic, including games, business, screensavers, and education software. Programs have screenshots, reviews and author info. Free downloads of the latest Windows 95/98/2000/XP shareware.
http://www.softdepia.com/
C.P. Costa Verde
Club Patin Costa Verde Patinaje de velocidad
http://www.cpcostaverde.com/
Formatta Corporation
Formatta Corporation provides e-form solutions that enable businesses and government to securely capture and transfer electronic data using a familiar interface—a form.
http://www.formatta.com/
YAFPC, the freeware PDF Composer Printer Mailer
YAFPC (Yet Another Free PDF-composer) can compose PDF documents from picture files and other PDF files, encrypt the created document and send it to some e-mail address. YAFPC is aimed to act as command-line tool in combination with GhostScript for providing a network shared PDF-printer, which automatically adds letterheads, company-logos, watermark and Terms & Condition-pages to the printed documents, and then mails the document to the user, who initiated the print job.
http://www.yafpc.net/
GNU Project: Free Software Foundation: FSF
Official list of GNU Free software.
http://www.gnu.org/
Completely Free Software
A searchable index of Windows and DOS freeware, reviewed and rated. Organized by platform and function.
http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/
Tucows
Freeware and shareware downloads for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and PDA. Mirror locations throughout the world.
http://www.tucows.com/
Free Software Foundation Europe
Web site of the FSF Europe, an organization dedicated to Free Software activities in Europe. As the official sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the United States, it will build its activities around the GNU Project although it won't be limited to it.
http://fsfeurope.org
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