Free software Wikipedia. Free software or libre software12 is computer software distributed under terms that allow the software users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute the software and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price users, individually or collectively, are free to do what they want with it, including the freedom to redistribute the software free of charge, or to sell it, or charge for related services such as support or warranty for profit. The right to study and modify software entails availability of the software source code to its users. While this right is often called access to source code, the Free Software Foundation recommends to avoid using the word access in this context9 because it is misleading and may make people believe that they may have a copy of the source code unconditionally. This right is only conditional on the person actually having a copy of the software, i. Richard Stallman used the already existing term free software1. GNU Projecta collaborative effort to create a freedom respecting operating systemand the Free Software Foundation FSF. Free Desktop To Do List Software' title='Free Desktop To Do List Software' />The FSFs Free Software Definition5 states that users of free software are free because they do not need to ask for permission to use the software. Alternatives and contextedit. Epson Stylus Photo 1270 Printer Driver Windows 7 there. This Venn diagram describes the typical relationship between freeware and free and open source software FOSS According to David Rosen from Wolfire Games in 2. Freeware green seldom expose their source code. Free Desktop To Do List Software' title='Free Desktop To Do List Software' />Free software thus differs from. For computer programs that are covered by copyright law, software freedom is achieved with a software license, by which the author grants users the aforementioned freedom. Software that is not covered by copyright law, such as software in the public domain, is free if the source code is in the public domain, or otherwise available without restrictions. Proprietary software, including freeware, use restrictive software licences or EULAs and usually do not provide access to the source code. Powerful ToDo list, task management personal organizer software MyLifeOrganized designed to implement GTD Getting Things Done system. FREE trial Take a free trial of VMware virtualization products to optimize and manage IT resources for the server, desktop, and the data center. Deliver IT as a service with an. Users are thus prevented from changing the software, and this results in the user relying on the publisher to provide updates, help, and support. Users often may not reverse engineer, modify, or redistribute proprietary software. Other legal and technical aspects, such as software patents and digital rights management may restrict users in exercising their rights, and thus prevent software from being free. Free software may be developed collaboratively by volunteer computer programmers or by corporations as part of a commercial, for profit activity or not. HistoryeditFrom the 1. Software was commonly shared by individuals who used computers and by hardware manufacturers who welcomed the fact that people were making software that made their hardware useful. Organizations of users and suppliers, for example, SHARE, were formed to facilitate exchange of software. As software was often written in an interpreted language such as BASIC, the source code was distributed to use a software. Free Desktop To Do List Software' title='Free Desktop To Do List Software' />Software was also shared and distributed as printed source code Type in program in computer magazines like Creative Computing, Soft. Side, Compute, Byte etc and books, like the bestseller BASIC Computer Games. By the early 1. 97. Desktop Ticker is a free scrolling RSS feed display that you can place anywhere on the desktop for an unobtrusive yet instantly accessible and highly. In United States vs. IBM, filed January 1. While some software might always be free, there would henceforth be a growing amount of software produced primarily for sale. In the 1. 97. 0s and early 1. In 1. 98. 0, copyright law was extended to computer programs. In 1. 98. 3, Richard Stallman, one of the original authors of the popular Emacs program and a longtime member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, announced the GNU project, the purpose of which was to produce a completely non proprietary Unix compatible operating system, saying that he had become frustrated with the shift in climate surrounding the computer world and its users. Truly free antivirus software, free firewalls, free email protection software, free virus prevention software, tests of antivirus programs, links to specialized. In his initial declaration of the project and its purpose, he specifically cited as a motivation his opposition to being asked to agree to non disclosure agreements and restrictive licenses which prohibited the free sharing of potentially profitable in development software, a prohibition directly contrary to the traditional hacker ethic. Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1. Free Software Foundation FSF was founded in October 1. He developed a free software definition and the concept of copyleft, designed to ensure software freedom for all. Some non software industries are beginning to use techniques similar to those used in free software development for their research and development process scientists, for example, are looking towards more open development processes, and hardware such as microchips are beginning to be developed with specifications released under copyleft licenses see the Open. Cores project, for instance. Creative Commons and the free culture movement have also been largely influenced by the free software movement. Foundation of the GNU projecteditIn 1. Richard Stallman, longtime member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, announced the GNU project, saying that he had become frustrated with the effects of the change in culture of the computer industry and its users. Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1. Free Software Foundation FSF was founded in October 1. An article outlining the project and its goals was published in March 1. GNU Manifesto. The manifesto included significant explanation of the GNU philosophy, Free Software Definition and copyleft ideas. Release of the Linux kerneleditThe Linux kernel, started by Linus Torvalds, was released as freely modifiable source code in 1. The first licence was a proprietary software licence. However, with version 0. February 1. 99. 2, he relicensed the project under the GNU General Public License. Much like Unix, Torvalds kernel attracted the attention of volunteer programmers. Free. BSD and Net. BSD both derived from 3. BSD were released as free software when the USL v. BSDi lawsuit was settled out of court in 1. Open. BSDforked from Net. BSD in 1. 99. 5. Also in 1. The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache, was released under the Apache License 1. The FSF recommends using the term free software rather than open source software because, as they state in a paper on Free Software philosophy, the latter term and the associated marketing campaign focuses on the technical issues of software development, avoiding the issue of user freedoms. The FSF also notes that Open Source has exactly one specific meaning in common English, namely that you can look at the source code. Stallman states that while the term Free Software can lead to two different interpretations, one of them is consistent with FSF definition of Free Software so there is at least some chance that it could be understood properly, unlike the term Open Source. Stallman has also stated that considering the practical advantages of free software is like considering the practical advantages of not being handcuffed in that it is not necessary for an individual to consider practical reasons in order to realize that being handcuffed restricts their freedom.