What is free software?

Mar 17

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What is free software?

I use every day, is everywhere, has a lot of profit and no matter what operating system you use because I find them all.

Proponents say it is more than one kind of software, which is a philosophy of life . What is free software?

Join us in this modest attempt to clarify what is and is not free software.

A single word: freedom

We went to Google and this brings us to Wikipedia. Free software in English free software , means software that respects the freedom of its users , allowing them to also use the program, copy it, study it, adapt it to their needs and redistribute it .

The Free Software Foundation (Free Software Foundation) is to say the same: free software is one on which you have control, that is, you decide how to act and not the developer or the government. For an application is free software should be transparent , meaning that you have access to source code.

And if you have not yet become clear, you can take a look at the broad definition of the GNU Project , which is part of the Free Software Foundation, or the scheme you’ll find the entrance of Wikipedia’s Free Software.

Sharing knowledge

The main feature of free software is free, but other than a low key, and that is shared .

The foundation advocates of free software and the multitude of associations and groups of users coming to this type of software are very prolific as far as documentation is concerned. Not only defend the use of free software , but also recommend it and help us to use .

The plot is further evidence of the Freedom Day of software, of which we spoke . There he conducts workshops and outreach activities, while not unique to this day and happen the rest of the year.

If it is free I pay for it?

Because of the double meaning of the word free ( free in English), a common misconception is to think that free software is also free.

Fortunately, many important projects and programs are completely free and are funded through donations, such as Firefox, Ubuntu, GIMP or OpenOffice, but there are also free of payment software .

So how do you protect an author your free software?

Freedom is not infinite. Your freedom ends where mine begins, so you have to limit where one begins and the other ends. For that is the licenses.

Free software, unlike proprietary, use copyleft instead of copyright. Ie, it protects the author’s work of a program but also emphasizes the user’s right to use that program as they see fit, with as few restrictions as possible.

The most representative is copyleft GNU General Public License , or GPL. There is a slightly more light called LGPL (Lesser General Public License GNU), as well as many other licenses tailored to specific projects such as the BSD license and the MPL (Mozilla Public License).

Of these and many other licenses will talk soon.

What do you think of free software? Do you use on your computer or you are more in favor of proprietary software?

Links

* Free Software Definition (Wikipedia in Spanish)

* Owner Software Definition (Wikipedia in Spanish)

* Página oficial de la Free Software Foundation

* The Free Software Definition GNU Project

* The GNU General Public License

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