Free software (English:), according to the definition of the Free Software Foundation, is a type of software that can be used, copied, studied, modified and distributed freely without restrictions, and that respects the user's freedom.

free software

Tip : This entry is not about free software .

Free software (English:), according to the definition of the Free Software Foundation , is a type of software that can be used, copied, studied, modified and distributed freely without restrictions, and that respects the user's freedom . The lack of restrictions in this regard is the most important essence of free software. The opposite of free software is proprietary software (English: some people will also translate it as private software, closed software). The definition of the latter depends on whether it is charged Cost has nothing to do with it. In fact, free software is not necessarily free software, and free software itself does not resist commercialization. Free software is released under the protection of a selected "Free Software License Agreement" (or placed in the public domain). Its release is mainly source code, and binary files are optional.

The free software symbol of the GNU Project.

free software mind map

user

Free software has made a huge contribution to commercial development around the world, especially hardware. Most embedded device system manufacturers will also develop operating systems based on free software because they do not need to pay licensing fees and for practical reasons. Most operating systems in the world contain free software components to some extent (for example, BSD 's TCP/IP protocol stack is widely used by proprietary commercial operating systems including MacOS and Windows ). As more and more free software supports the Microsoft Windows platform, and thanks to the popularity of the Android platform, there are currently hundreds of millions of users using free software in their daily lives or work.

Direct users of free software are often computer professionals, or people who have the ability to understand and change the source code. With the popularization of GNU/Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu and Manjaro that are more friendly to ordinary users , ordinary users can use them out of the box without having relevant knowledge .

free software license

Entry: Free Software License Terms

Most free software uses similar free software licenses. The most used free software licenses are as follows

The MIT License
The GNU General Public License v2
The Apache License
The GNU General Public License v3
The BSD License
The GNU Lesser General Public License(LGPL)
The Mozilla Public License (MPL)
The Eclipse Public License

meaning and history

The English word for free software is "". In English, the word "" has the dual meaning of "free" and "free". Regarding how to distinguish free software (Latin: ) and free software (Latin: ), the founder of the free software movement community - made a The following definition: "Free software is about freedom, not price. To understand what it represents, you should think of "free" as in the word "free speech" (English: ), not The meaning of the word "free beer" (English: ). "Free software means that users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, modify and improve the software. The definition of free software can be traced back to the GNU Declaration .

Most free software is freely distributed on the Internet, often free of charge. Some may be distributed as offline entities, sometimes with discretionary fees (such as production costs and shipping fees), and people can sell the software at any price. Therefore, free software can also be commercial software: because free software licenses do not restrict the sale of software or the provision of commercial services, these do not violate free software licenses such as GPL . Therefore, "free software" is about freedom, not price, and how software is priced does not affect whether it is classified as free software.

Definition of free software

The Free Software Foundation's (FSF) definition of free software was first published in 1989. This definition was later rewritten by Bruce Perens as the " Debian Free Software Guidelines ".

According to Stallman and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), free software gives users four freedoms:

Freedom Zero: The freedom to use the software for whatever purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the software works and to modify it to suit the user's own needs. Obtaining the source code of the software is a prerequisite for achieving this purpose.
Freedom 2: There is freedom to redistribute the software, so everyone can be a good neighbor by distributing free software.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve, reuse the software, and to publish revised versions for public use, so that the entire community can benefit. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, obtaining the source code of the software is a prerequisite for achieving this purpose.

If the user of a software has the above four rights, the software can be called "free software". In other words, users must be free to redistribute the original version or adapted version of the software at any time and make it available to anyone, anywhere, without charging a fee or charging a reasonable distribution fee. If users do not have to ask anyone or pay any licensing fees to engage in these activities, it means that they have the freedom rights granted by free software.

Free software does not have copyrights

Entry: copyleft

Most free software can be obtained freely without charge, and its source code can be freely modified and distributed, but it is not copyright-free. Copyright arises naturally when a work is completed and does not require application or registration. Its connotation usually includes the rights to authorize, publish (disclose), and grant others to use. If the person who legally owns the copyright unconditionally gives up all copyrights, the work will be "released into the public domain." It should be noted that once the work is released into the public domain, the original copyright holder can no longer impose any legal restrictions on how others can use the work. Therefore, technology giants can legally use these works for secondary creation (such as producing new software), and these secondary creations enjoy full copyright in law and are not subject to the control of the original copyright holder.

This does not meet the definition of free software. Free software must be able to inherit "freedom" indefinitely. Therefore, free software is not "released into the public domain", but "inheriting the attribute of freedom" is used as a condition for allowing others to use free software. If anyone uses software developed by free software without opening the source code to others, his or her secondary development of the free software will violate copyright law. Therefore, free software does not legally give up copyright, but stipulates certain definitions of "freedom" and requires users to maintain the same authorization for derivative works if they want to exercise these freedoms.

The opposite example is non-free software (closed software). If, when a user pays to purchase or obtain a set of software for free, all he gets is the "right to use", and the user must accept the software license of the software before he can use it; and the original author of the software listed in the license remains The right of modification is reserved. Modification without the consent of the original author is a violation of the license, and the software is classified as closed software. Please note that free software also has licenses, such as the GNU General Public License , but these licenses do not restrict you from obtaining the source code or restricting you from modifying the software. The only requirement is that you must apply the same or More permissive license. That is to say, other people can obtain the source code of the new software after your modification and modify it. You must not restrict them from doing so, otherwise your original modification will constitute an infringement because it does not comply with the GNU General Public License (previously participated in the writing of this software copyright).

Free software does not use closed formats

Closed software usually uses a proprietary closed format and does not allow users to distribute it, which greatly limits the user's freedom. Free software is completely different. Since the source code of free software is public, any format it uses is transparent. Free software never releases proprietary closed-format software that restricts users' freedom to modify it.

The spiritual leader of free software

The spiritual leader of free software is Richard Matthew Stallman . He is known as "the last real hacker". He believes that a good software should be freely accessible to others. Software should not be used as a tool for mutual strife and exploitation. So he drafted the GNU General Public License to protect the freedom of free software, and founded the Free Software Foundation to implement his ideas. Leaders are sometimes called lifelong benevolent dictators .

Free software and open source software

The earliest definition of open source was created in 1998, from the Debian Free Software Guidelines . Although most open source software is also free software, the GNU Project believes that the term "open source" does not capture the true meaning of free software, and it is easy for people to focus too much on the quality, popularity and success of the software and ignore or abandon freedom. The moral values and social values of the software spirit advocate free software as a moral bottom line.

Members of the FreeBSD , OpenBSD and NetBSD communities often believe that " Copyleft " is an excessive restriction on freedom and an infringement of freedom, so they tend to use looser BSD and MIT -like protocols. However, such protocols are The lack of relevant instructions does not prevent the results from being exploited by patent trolls. Some companies/groups choose to use the Apache2.0 protocol in order to avoid the infringement of patent trolls and do not want to use copyleft protocols such as GPLv3 and MPL2.0 .

For relatively loose free software licenses such as BSD and MIT, the GNU Project believes that they are lax (English:) and permissive (English:) for proprietary software, because these agreements cannot prevent their derivative works from becoming proprietary software that restricts user freedom . With software, once you allow them to do that, then you can't defend other people's freedom. , such as the use of FreeBSD in PlayStation 4 system software and the use of BSD's TCP/IP protocol stack in proprietary software.

formal differences

Open source software and free software are two different concepts. Software that conforms to the definition of open source software can be called open source software . Free software has a stricter concept than open source software, so all free software is open source, but not all open source software can be called "free." But generally, the vast majority of open source software also meets the definition of free software.

The difference in connotation between the two

The role of open source is to use open development methods to optimize the software as much as possible, while free software respects user freedom as a moral standard.
If "free software" can cause misunderstandings (because the word "free" in English has the dual meaning of "free" and "free"), then the name "open source" will cause even more misunderstandings. "Open source" can easily make people think that it is open source if the source code is "disclosed", that is, "you can see the source code." But if the user's freedom is still not respected, then there is no point in releasing the source code. Some software companies just want users to help them debug and absorb features contributed by the community. This will destroy the original intention of free software. One example is the set-top box produced by Tivo. Although it is based on GNU/Linux , TiVo has also released the source code under the license, but it prohibits users from running their own programs on the set-top box or reinstalling the system.
The original intention of free software is to give users the freedom to use software. This "freedom" is the spirit of free software. However, some commercial open source codes deliberately ignore this most important spirit, and fail to allow users to realize the true meaning of "freedom." Therefore, open source, a term that replaces free software, actually removes the original meaning of freedom.

Richard Matthew Stallman, the spiritual leader of free software, objected to people confusing open source and free software. .

Free software and freeware

Entry: free software

List of free and open source software

Free software (English:) is software that can be obtained without paying, but usually has other restrictions. Users do not have the freedom to use, copy, study, modify and distribute. The source code of the software will not necessarily be made public. Even if some free software is so-called open source, it is not free software because there are restrictive clauses that restrict users' software freedom, such as restricting users from modifying and redistributing or restricting/restricting the use of specific groups of people.

Tivoization

See: GPLv3 and en:Vendor_lock-in

Tivoization is an act of restricting software freedom, which prohibits users from installing or running modified executable files by detecting executable file signatures. This behavior is called a "tyrant" by Richard Stallman (English: ). The name comes from the fact that Tivo uses the source code of GNU and Linux kernels in its digital video recorder products , but its design limits users' software freedom, and users cannot freely run and use modified systems on its products. Therefore, the Free Software Foundation published GPLv3 , and the licensing agreement for the GNU project software was also upgraded. However, many Linux kernel developers opposed the upgrade due to various factors.

Digital restriction management

Entry: Design flaws

Digital restriction management (English:) or digital restriction mechanism (English:) is a sarcastic term used by the free software community for digital rights management , because it restricts users' software freedom rights. The Free Software Foundation launched the Defective By Design movement in response to this behavior that restricts users' software freedom by design.

JavaScript pitfalls

See: NoScript

JavaScript Trap (English:) refers to the phenomenon of users using proprietary software in the browser without knowing it. RMS gives a specific definition on the GNU Project website.

In order to solve this problem, the GNU Project created GNU LibreJS, which provides the function of detecting and intercepting non-free and non-trivial JavaScript on web pages visited by users, for users who value software freedom. Some free software communities have also made some efforts to solve such problems. For example, LibrePlanet, supported by the Free Software Foundation, has set up an action group specifically for this purpose.

See

Free Software, Free Society: Selected Works of Richard Stallman
Copyleft
GNU
GNU Lesser General Public License
Richard Matthew Stallman
GNU/Linux
open source
Linux adoption
List of free and open source software
Free and open source software license comparison
pirate party
Sharism

references

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^ Brandom, Russell. . The Verge. 2019-05-07 [2019-08-14]. ( Archived from the original on 2021-04-25).
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^ . Black Duck Software. 19 November 2015 [19 November 2015]. （原始内容存档于2016-07-19）. 1. MIT license 24%, 2. GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 23%, 3. Apache License 16%, 4. GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0 9%, 5. BSD License 2.0 (3-clause, New or Revised) License 6%, 6. GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 2.1 5%, 7. Artistic License (Perl) 4%, 8. GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 3.0 2%, 9. Microsoft Public License 2%, 10. Eclipse Public License (EPL) 2%
^ Balter, Ben. . github.com. 2015-03-09 [2015-11-21]. ( Original content archived on 2017-07-19). "1 MIT 44.69%, 2 Other 15.68%, 3 GPLv2 12.96% , 4 Apache 11.19%, 5 GPLv3 8.88%, 6 BSD 3-clause 4.53%, 7 Unlicense 1.87%, 8 BSD 2-clause 1.70%, 9 LGPLv3 1.30%, 10 AGPLv3 1.05%
^ 原文如下：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"
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^ . www.gnu.org. [2019-04-16]. （原始内容存档于2021-05-08）（英语）. You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License. For example, you may not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of rights granted under this License, and you may not initiate litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it.
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^ . www.debian.org. [2019-04-16]. （原始内容存档于2011-02-17）. The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) part of the contract, initially designed as a set of commitments that we agree to abide by, has been adopted by the free software community as the basis of the Open Source Definition.
^ . opensource.org. [2019-04-16]. ( Archived from the original on 2021-05-05). The Open Source Definition was originally derived from the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG).
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^ . www.gnu.org. [2019-04-16]. ( Original content archived on 2019-04-16) (Chinese (Taiwan)). Adopt any BSD licensing terms, or other laissez-faire and permissive licensing There is nothing wrong with distributing your code under the terms; that program is still free software, and it still contributes to our community. But this force is quite weak. In most cases, this is not the best way to promote users to freely share and modify software.
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^ There is currently no official Chinese translation. Wikipedia users translated it as design defect. See Talk: Design Defect.
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external link

"Free Software, Free Society (Third Edition)" Chinese version can be read online for free ( page archive backup , stored in), translated by the Beijing GNU/Linux User Group.
Free Software Directory ( page archive backup , stored in) - Free Software Foundation
Software Freedom Association of the Republic of China ( page archive backup , stored in)

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