Key Points - Free And Open Source Software

Free Software
Definition by Richard Stallman’s:
It means software is freely accessible, free to use, changed, improved, copied, distributed without any payments.

Four kinds of freedom
- Freedom to run the program for any purpose
- Freedom to redistribute copies.
- Freedom to study how the program works
- Freedom to improve the program and release your improvements to the public.

Open Source Software
Definition: The categories of software / programs whose licenses do not impose much conditions.

Features:
1. Freedom to run and use the software
2. Modify the program
3. Redistribute copies of either original or modified program (without paying royalties to previous developers).
It can be freely used for modifications, but it does not have to be free of charge. Its source code is available.
Criteria for the distribution of open source software

Free distribution
Source code
Derived works
Integrity of the Author’s Source code
No discrimination against fields of endeavor.
Distribution of License
License must not be specific to a product
License must not restrict other software
FOSS (free and open software)
Free software- no payments
Open source software- for technical progress

OSS and FLOSS
- OSS- Source code is available (open source modified and redistributed software) free of cost or with nominal charge.
- FLOSS- (free libre and open source software)

FSF( free software foundation)
Founded by Richard Stallman in 1985 to support GNU project.
Non-profit organization created for the purpose of supporting free software movement
GNU (free and open source)
Objective : To create a system compatible to unix but not identical with it.
Now it offers a wide range of software, including applications apart from operating system.
Proprietary software (neither open nor freely available)
DefinitionIts use is regulated and further distribution and modification is either forbidden or requires special permission by the supplier
Source code is not available.
Freeware

Free of cost
- Copying and further distribution but not modification.
- Source code is not available
- Eg. MS IE

Shareware

Right to redistribute copies
After a certain period of time license fee should be paid.
Source code is not available.
Modifications is not possible.
Objective- to increase user’s will to pay for the software. Limits functionality after a trial period of 1-3 months.
Some Softwares

LINUX
- Linux: - free and open source software.
- It can be downloaded from www.linux.org
- Linux is a part of popular webserver program LAMP (Linux,apache,MySql, PHP).

Mozilla
- Freeware
- No source code available
- free internet software
It can be download from www.mozilla.org

Apache Server
- Apache HTTP server is an open source web server.
- It is component of LAMP.

It can be downloaded from www.apache.org

Quick Review
Software
Source code
Free
Modification
Redistribution
Example
OSS
YES
May or may not
YES
YES
FLOSS
YES
YES
YES
YES
Linus
GNU
YES
YES
YES
YES
Project
FSF
YES
YES
YES
YES
GNU not unix
Proprietary s/w
NO
NO
NO
NO
Oracle,VB
Shareware
NO
Trial period
NO
NO python
Freeware
NO
YES
NO
YES
IE, Mozilla