Free software and open source

[Emma Hickam]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what is "free software" and is it the same as "open source"..

[SIbinPhilip]

Hi Emma,

"Free software" and "open source software" are two terms for the same thing: software released under licenses that guarantee a certain, specific set of freedoms.

The term "free software" is older, and is reflected in the name of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), an organization founded in 1985 to protect and promote free software. The term "open source" was coined in 1998 by a group of people , the founders of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) , who also supported the development and distribution of free software, but who disagreed with the FSF about how to promote it, and who felt that software freedom was primarily a practical matter rather than an ideological one.

The term OpenSource was introduced by another community including ESR, is more or less indifferent to moral issues concerning software sharing. The OpenSource movement argues that developing software using the "bazaar" philosophy (as described in TheCathedralAndTheBazaar) is superior. Hence the definition of OpenSource is focused on effective development using the bazaar model.

Sometimes people mistakenly assume that users of the term "open source" do not intend to communicate a philosophical point of view via that term, even though some (but not all) speakers actually do use it that way. Another common mistake is to think that "free software" refers only to software licensed under copyleft licenses, since that is how the FSF typically releases software, while "open source" refers to software released under so-called permissive (i.e., non-copyleft) licenses. In fact, both terms refer to software released under both kinds of license.

Hope this helps you.

[Emma Hickam]

Hi,

Thank you for the clarifying the doubt. In the reply you mentioned about copyleft license, could you give me a brief idea about it..

[SIbinPhilip]

Hello Emma,

"Copyleft" refers to licenses that allow derivative works but require them to use the same license as the original work.

For example, if you write some software and release it under the GNU General Public License (a widely-used copyleft license), and then someone else modifies that software and distributes their modified version, the modified version must be licensed under the GNU GPL too , including any new code written specifically to go into the modified version. Both the original and the new work are Open Source; the copyleft license simply ensures that property is perpetuated to all downstream derivatives.

[Emma Hickam]

Hi Sibin,

Thank you very much...