Free Software

Free as in Freedom

I try to exclusively use free software both at home and at work, and I'm
pretty much at the point where I have succeeded. By free software here
I'm not referring to software without cost.

The Free Software Foundation, founded by Richard Stallman (RMS) defines free software as software that grants you the following "freedoms":

0. to run it for any purpose;
1. to study and adapt it (Source Code to your needs;
2. to redistribute, so you can help others;
3. to release improvements, so everyone can benefit.

As you can see, this is more than "simply" open source. Most open source software is also free, but not all. Lots of people however, including Bruce Perens use the two terms equivalently.

Why should you care?

For a lot of people, the obvious reaction is so what? Particularly if you can't modify the code for yourself - but at least you can get someone to do it, and possibly move it from computer to computer. Software like Firefox has shown what free software can do, both directly and in shaking up the market place. Free software also implies open standards which allows a fair playing field.

Examples

Here are some examples of free software

• I run most of my machines on Debian GNU/Linux.
• I tend to produce most of my notes and lecturing materials in LaTeX,
  often using a multitude of helper packages.
• I could be lazy and use OpenOffice, AbiWord etc..
• I host my sites in Apache, and generally use languages like PHP for
  web development

Join the FSF

 I am also a fellow of the Free Software Foundation (Europe).