Free Software
Some free software is software whose so-called free license gives everyone the right to use, study, modify, copy and sell the software. Richard Stallman had formalised the notion of free software in the first half of 1980 and it was then popularised with the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
Since the late 1990s, the success of open source software, including Linux, is attracting attention in the computer industry and the media. FOSS (free and open-source softweare) is a popular alternative to software which has "owners".
The concept of open source software is not to be confused with that of free software (freeware), or shareware or those in the public domain. Similarly, freedoms defined by free software are much more extensive than just access to sources - the so-called open source software. However, the concept of formal open source software as defined by the Open Source Initiative is recognised as technically comparable to free software.
Origins and evolution of open source software
Operators of the first computers produced in the run took the habit of forming user groups to share their experiences: COMMON SHARE and for IBM, DECUS for Digital Equipment Corporation, and so on. Indeed, there was then no resource for training, outside training provided by the manufacturers. These groups were supported by the manufacturers themselves and software changes were exchanged. At this time it was computer equipment which was supposed to be the source of income, the software is only one way to facilitate the sale. Access to the source code was normal, because it bought a computer without having a team of programmers. Long before even the creation of Unix, professionals and academics willingly exchanged their software and their source codes, and builders gave them for nothing until the antitrust laws forbid them to allow the exercise of competition in this area. In addition, through the 1970's it was not yet quite clear that copyright applies to software.
By court decisions, manufacturers are forced to charge their software separately at the beginning of 1970. In fifteen years, the advent of microcomputers will generalize this model and give an impetus to software publishers who 'guide to the sale of licenses. One example often cited to illustrate this turning point is an open letter to Bill Gates for hobbyists order to stop illegally copied software. The same Bill Gates, obtaining IBM leaves the rights of DOS and Windows and does a license to practice, become two decades later the richest man in the world where it sells a personal computer every 10 seconds, more than nine out of ten being preequipped with a Microsoft system.
The manufacturers have the same restricted access to the source code of programs, often because the modifications carried out by teams of clients make problematic medium distance (OCO strategy, object-code only to IBM in the early 1980s . It becomes impossible, and in some cases prohibited, to study, to correct or improve the software acquired. Not only the user can no longer adapt the software to their wishes, but in case of bug, he finds himself dependent the whim of the software. Finally, copying, a natural with a computer, changes generally prohibited (by default, copyright prohibits copying not explicitly allowed).
The software available only under these restrictive conditions become the norm, and software hitherto freely exchanged often find themselves integrated into commercial products and non-shareable frozen.
Richard Stallman, a researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, feels deeply that change when the colleagues with whom he worked and exchanged software so far have pledged to turn to produce software that they longer share. In 1983 he created so the GNU Project, which aims to build an operating system compatible with Unix, and including all software is freely shared. Parallel to the development work undertaken, Richard Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation. To provide a solid foundation for his project, Richard Stallman precisely defines the concept of free software. And he wrote with the help of Eben Moglen the GNU General Public License (GPL), which uses copyright to guarantee the right to share (and thus prohibit the possibility that evolution is no longer shareable). Thus, it establishes a legal framework and encourages the development of open source software. The goal of free software is to enable complete sharing of information, hence the reference to freedom.
If Richard Stallman believes that the course hitherto freely shareable software are free, it also includes software under copyleft in OSS. The invention of copyleft, implemented by the GNU General Public License, can solve two seemingly paradoxical demands: allow the free sharing of software, while preventing its incorporation into products not shareable. FOSS under copyleft are available under a license that includes a significant number of clauses designed to prevent any possibility of making the software free least in the reshuffling. Thus the GPL requires, inter alia, that any redistribution is done exactly under the terms of the GPL, both for the original software for the changes that have been made in guaranteeing access to complete source code for several years.
Subsequent Motivations
The developers and users of free software are independent from all political tendencies, and their motivations are far from homogeneous.
Richard Stallman believes that copyright, prohibiting help his friends by a simple copy, emphasizing the author at the expense of the world, is harmful to society. To illustrate the principle of free software to other software, he gladly compare this to the recipe for a cake:
- According to the principle of freedom: you got this recipe legally by any means (review of mouth ...). You have the right to redistribute this recipe with whom you want and you can edit it and then redistribute it as you please.
- According to the principle of non-free software: you do not have access to the recipe but only at the cake already. You can eat the cake in only one kitchen, and anyone else you can not eat. Even though the recipe is included with the cake, any copying or modification is prohibited.
In contrast, Linux creator Linus Torvalds does not remark on the political significance of the principle of free software and instead puts forward the effectiveness of technical cooperation that freedom makes possible. He compares happy cooperation among free software developers with scientific cooperation: everyone openly publishes its results that allow others to build new solutions.
Social phenomenon
Enthusiasm for free software than now widely part of the small community of technicians and in which the concept was originally created and developed. There are many positions taken by the company in favor of any new development and distribution of software. Many people are totally alien to the culture s'entichent the concept, however, there is no certainty that they distinguish the subtleties of the "open source", "free" software or simply the "freedom" really at stake
Free software is no longer just a legal solution protecting the right of authors choosing to work in an open and collaborative, it becomes a genuine social phenomenon. It passionate young people who discover vocations promoters of this new philosophy, with a momentum that affects sometimes romance. Proprietary software (perhaps comprendrez-vous commercial and industrial) with a "free" is an alternative display becomes in the eyes of some an enemy target. The mere competition in the market is not sufficient to explain their enthusiasm. They talk about societal choices and sometimes find a favorable among some national politicians, adding the theme into their programs.