Free Software

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What is Free Software? 

As defined by the free software foundation, “A free software is a software that respects users freedom and community” [1]. In other words, a software that allows users of its software to use, modify, distribute, run, copy, study the software. The core of the definition is the keyword free. Free in the definition means “freedom” as in “free speech” not as a “free beer”.

The idea of free software does talks about freedom. Freedom from the clutches of businesses who provides you money and takes away your own intellectual property i.e, “your code”, “your idea”, “your creation” and make fortune out of it, and what one gets from its creation “peanuts”.

You may now think that we are getting paid for this so what's the harm in giving our intellectual property to the organization we are working for? But there are some questions I want to ask my readers?

  • Can you quote that the piece of code running in a luxurious car, which you developed, as you own? Even though it was your creation.
  • Can you copy the code and give it to your kids to study?
  • Can you freely distribute the code to the public, so that they can learn from and build onto it?
  • Can you make changes in your code and develop something onto it?

Now, the next question is “Free Software” the same as “Freeware”?


Free Software is a philosophy, which advocates the freedom of the user of the software. It gives you the freedom to look inside the software and understand the working of it. In contrast, Freeware is software that is free to use but with a catch, and that use of the software cannot reverse engineer to understand the working and users can not even see the code of it. Therefore, it does not respect the freedom of the user.


Rewind: A video from the FSF


Typical examples of freeware are Skype, Internet Explorer, and Adobe Acrobat. Users can use the software but they cannot change the code, analyze the underlying technology which is driving the software, There is one more catch, the developers of freeware may use their software against you by using the software to install malware, trojan and other malicious components inside your computer.


We must understand the “There is nothing like a free lunch in this world!!”

If someone is giving you something for free, it means that you are their next target.

Free Software advocates user's freedom and respects user's privacy. So you might be thinking that how to find Free software and can I list out some of its examples. So I will now list some of the free software:

  • GNU Linux, An operating system [5].
  • R Software for Statisticians
  • GCC, Linux C Compiler
  • GNOME, A graphical desktop for GNU.
  • TeXmacs, scientific editing software for designing technical documents
  • GNU Tex for Impatient, a ~350-page book on Tex.

The list of completely free software can be gathered from the link .

I hope by now you must have understood the basic philosophy behind Free Software. Now let us ponder upon another term i.e. “Open Source”.

According to the Open Source Initiative, “Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

  • Free Redistribution
  • Source Code
  • Derived Works
  • Integrity of the Author’s Source Code
  • No Discrimination Against Persons and Groups
  • No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
  • Distribution of License
  • License must not be specific to a product
  • License must not restrict other software
  • License must be technology neutral

The above criteria could be confusing to some, so I will decode the above definition. Open Source refers to the set of licenses mentioned in the above definition.


Ah! a new term. Now it is getting cryptic.


Let me give you the dictionary definition of it. A license is a permit from an authority to own or use something, do a particular thing. So when we talk about license then we are bound by its statement.


In contrast to Free software, it talks about freedom. It does not mean that it does not have to license under it.


I think that it is enough for this article.





So for all you guys, those who are interested in learning more about free software must go through the references. The free software is supported by the Free Software Foundation .


So let me summarize the above discussion. Open Source and Free Software “Open Source” emphasize more on the development methodology whereas “Free Software” is a social movement. They both have different values underneath.


In my next article, I will talk more in-depth about free software and its philosophy. In my subsequent articles, I will delve into Open Source, Proprietary Software, and Licensing.


References

[1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

[2] https://directory.fsf.org/?pk_campaign=fsfredesign

[3] https://www.fsf.org/

[4] https://www.gnu.org/software/teximpatient/

[5] https://opensource.org/osd



Gaurav Parashar (Faculty)

Computer Science Department

KIET Group of Institutions
Location: Monthly Wrap KIET Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201206, India

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