Is open source software free?
1721496#2
"Free and open-source software" (FOSS) is an umbrella term for software that is simultaneously considered both Free software and open-source software. FOSS (free and open-source software) allows the user to inspect the source code and provides a high level of control of the software's functions compared to proprietary software. The term "free software" does not refer to the monetary cost of the software at all, but rather whether the license maintains the software user's civil liberties ("free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”). There are a number of related terms and abbreviations for free and open-source software (FOSS or F/OSS), or free/libre and open-source software (FLOSS or F/LOSS -- FLOSS is the FSF-preferred term).
Free and open-source software
25190769#3
The open-source movement is branched from the free-software movement which began in the late 80s with the launching of the GNU project by Richard Stallman. Stallman is regarded within the open-source community as sharing a key role in the conceptualization of freely-shared source code for software development. The term "free software" in the free software movement is meant to imply freedom of software exchange and modification. The term does not refer to any monetary freedom. Both the free-software movement and the open-source movement share this view of free exchange of programming code, and this is often why both of the movements are sometimes referenced in literature as part of the FOSS or "Free and Open Software" or FLOSS "Free/Libre Open-Source" communities.
Open-source-software movement
1721496#4
As the Free Software Foundation (FSF) explains the philosophical difference between free software and open-source software: "The two terms describe almost the same category of software, but they stand for views based on fundamentally different values. Open-source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the free-software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, essential respect for the users' freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open-source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only." In parallel to this the Open Source Initiative (OSI) considers many free-software licenses to also be open source. These include the latest versions of the FSF's three main licenses: the GPL, the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), and the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL).
Free and open-source software
2953900#3
In 1998 the term "open-source software" (as abbreviation "OSS") was coined as alternative for "free software". There were several reasons for the proposal of a new term. On one hand a group from the free software ecosystem perceived the Free Software Foundation's attitude on propagandizing the "free software" concept as "moralising and confrontational", which was also associated with the term. In addition, the "available at no cost" ambiguity of the word "free" was seen as discouraging business adoption, as also the historical ambiguous usage of the term "free software". In a 1998 strategy session in California, "open-source software" was selected by Todd Anderson, Larry Augustin, Jon Hall, Sam Ockman, Christine Peterson, and Eric S. Raymond. Richard Stallman had not been invited. The session was arranged in reaction to Netscape's January 1998 announcement of a source code release for Navigator (as Mozilla). Those at the meeting described "open source" as a "replacement label" for free software, and the Open Source Initiative was soon-after founded by Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens to promote the term as part of "a marketing program for free software". The Open Source Definition is used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether a software license qualifies for the organization's insignia for open source software. The definition was based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens. Perens did not base his writing on the four freedoms of free software from the Free Software Foundation, which were only later available on the web. According to the OSI, Stallman initially flirted with the idea of adopting the open source term.
Alternative terms for free software
277663#14
Despite initially accepting it, Richard Stallman of the FSF now flatly opposes the term "Open Source" being applied to what they refer to as "free software". Although he agrees that the two terms describe "almost the same category of software", Stallman considers equating the terms incorrect and misleading. Stallman also opposes the professed pragmatism of the Open Source Initiative, as he fears that the free software ideals of freedom and community are threatened by compromising on the FSF's idealistic standards for software freedom. The FSF considers free software to be a subset of open-source software, and Richard Stallman explained that DRM software, for example, can be developed as open source, despite that it does not give its users freedom (it restricts them), and thus doesn't qualify as free software.
Open-source software
1721496#0
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software. That is, anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.
Free and open-source software
2953900#4
On the end of 1990s the term "open source" gained much traction in public media and acceptance in software industry in context of the dotcom bubble and the open-source software driven Web 2.0. For instance, Duke University scholar Christopher M. Kelty described the Free Software movement prior to 1998 as fragmented and ""the term Open Source, by contrast, sought to encompass them all in one movement"". The term "open source" gained brought spread as open source movement which inspired many successor movements like the Open content, Open-source hardware, Open Knowledge movements. Under the impression of the success of "Open source" several journalists reported around 2000 the earlier "Free software" term and movement and its leader Stallman as being "forgotten". In response, Stallman and his FSF objected to the term "open source software" and fought since then for the term "free software". Due to the rejection of the FSF and its leader Richard Stallman of the term open source software, the ecosystem is being divided in its terminology. For example, a 2002 European Union FOSS developer survey revealed that 32.6% of them associate themselves with OSS, 48% with free software, and only 19.4% are undecided or in between. As both terms "free software" and "open-source software" have their fans and critics in the FOSS ecosystems, also unifying terms have been proposed; these include "software libre" (or libre software), "FLOSS" (free/libre and open-source software), and "FOSS" (or F/OSS, free and open-source software).
Alternative terms for free software
1721496#6
To meet the definition of "free software", the FSF requires the software's licensing rights what the FSF respect the civil liberties / human rights of what the FSF calls the software user's "Four Essential Freedoms".The open-source-software definition is used by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) to determine whether a software license qualifies for the organization's insignia for Open-source software. The definition was based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens. Perens did not base his writing on the Four Essential Freedoms of free software from the Free Software Foundation, which were only later available on the web. Perens subsequently stated that he felt Eric Raymond's promotion of Open-source unfairly overshadowed the Free Software Foundation's efforts and reaffirmed his support for Free software. In the following 2000s, he spoke about open source again.
Free and open-source software
25190769#17
Members of the open-source movement stress the importance of differentiating between open-source software and free software. Although the two issues are related, they are quite different. The open-source movement and the free-software movement are different, but they work together. Both movements strive for freedom of the Internet and dislike the idea of ownership over a website. For both open-source and free software, one can find the source code and executable component easily and for free online. The largest difference is that free software requires any changes to be submitted to the original maker for redistribution, and any derivative software must also be distributed as free software. This is mainly to keep companies from making minor changes to free software and redistributing it as their own, for a price.
Open-source-software movement
10638#18
While some people prefer to link the two ideas of "open-source software" and "free software" together, they offer two separate ideas and values. This ambiguity began in 1998 when people started to use the term "open-source software" rather than "free software". People in the community of free software used these separate terms as a way to differentiate what they did. Richard Stallman has called open source ""a non-movement"", because it ""does not campaign for anything"". Open source addresses software being open as a practical question as opposed to an ethical dilemma. In other words, it focuses more on the development. The open-source movement ultimately determines that non-free software is not the solution of best interest but nonetheless a solution.
Free software movement
4935428#1
FOSS stands for "Free and Open Source Software". There is no one universally agreed-upon definition of FOSS software and various groups maintain approved lists of licenses. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is one such organization keeping a list of open-source licenses. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) maintains a list of what it considers free. FSF's free software and OSI's open-source licenses together are called FOSS licenses. There are licenses accepted by the OSI which are not free as per the free software definition. The open source definition allows for further restrictions like price, type of contribution and origin of the contribution, e.g. the case of the NASA Open Source Agreement, which requires the code to be "original" work. The OSI does not endorse FSF license analysis (interpretation) as per their disclaimer.
Comparison of free and open-source software licenses