A Brief note on Free Software Philosophy

-
Before getting to know what is free software let us understand what is software?

What is software?

Software is a bunch of instructions given to the computer to do the work in a specific way. Sometimes software is a collection of programs.

Softwares are broadly classified into two types
1)Proprietary  software   2)Free software

What is proprietary software?

Proprietary software is software where you cannot change the program according to your requirements. It restricts your freedom to study and modify the source code. It is also called as closed-software because only developers have permission to modify it.

What is free software?

Free software respects freedom of the user we can modify the source code according to our needs.

Free Software Philosophy

Richard Stallman started a free software movement (FSM) the year 1983 by launching the GNU (GNU Not Unix) project. To support  FSM he later established Free Software Foundation(FSF) in the year 1985. Its headquarters is located in Boston.
Richard Stallman

Free software must follow four essential freedoms

Freedom - 0: Freedom to run

It means freedom to install and run the program by any kind of person or organisation for his/her own purpose without the need to contact the developer. This freedom is mainly for users purpose.

Freedom - 1: Freedom to modify

Freedom to study the source code and modify it for our purpose. Source code is a program written in a particular programming language by the developer.

Freedom - 2: Freedom to redistribute

Freedom to redistribute means you can freely redistribute the copies with or without modifications at any time and anywhere no need of any permission to do so.

Freedom - 3: Freedom to modify and redistribute

Freedom to modify the redistributed copies so that other users can get benefits of your changes in the source code. Access to source code is a must.


If the software does not follow anyone the freedom it is not free software.



It is the video of Richard Stallman explaining about free software at TEDx.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First one side love story Part - 1

-
Its the time world is recovering from pandemic in 2020. I had completed my graduation and started to Banglore ,for next phase in my career.  After 3months One fine evening, I had completed my shift and returned back to my room. I had shower and started scrolling on Instagram. Then I got a whats app message in my school group inviting all the classmates, friends for get together party. After reading that text a picture of a girl started flashing in my mind. And she is non other than my first crush💖.   I felt very happy that I'm finally going to meet her after a long time. Yeah we both studied in same class till 7th standard. After that year my father got transfer to Vizag. From then to till now I passed my days thinking about her each and every single day.  Still 2 Days left to see her ‼️   I packed my bags and started to my hometown with a lot excitement and joy. My journey is fully packed with childhood memories and the things I done when I was a kid, especially how I felt when I
Read more

THE WORLD I WANT TO SEE

-
I want to see a world, where there is no border among the countries. I want to see a world, where there are no religions. I want to see a world, where there are no casts. I want to see a world, where there are no gender discriminations. I want to see a world, where a being is safe from another being. I want to see a world, nothing much than love and peace.
Read more