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Philosophy
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About free software
Principles
What is Free Software?
"Free software" means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly; it means that
the users have the freedom to run, cOPY, distribute, study change and improve the software:
Thus; "free software
matter of
liberty; not price
To understand the concept; you should think of
"free
as in
speech;
not as in "free beer:
We sometimes call it "libre software;,
borrowing the
French or Spanish word for "free" as in freedom; to show we do not mean the software is
gratis.
You may have
paid money t0 get copies of
free program;, Or You may have obtained copies at no
charge_
But
regardless of how you got Your copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change
the software, even to sell copies_
We campaign for these freedoms because everyone deserves them_
With these freedoms, the users (both
individually and collectively) control the program and what it does for them.
When users dont control the
program, we call it a "nonfree" O
proprietary" program: The nonfree program controls the users, and the
developer controls the program; this makes the program an instrument of unjust power.
source" is something different: it has
very different philosophy based on different values_
Its practical
definition is different too_
but nearly all
source programs are in fact free
We explain the difference in
Why "Open Source
misses the point of Free Software
The Free Software Definition
The four essential freedoms
Free software can be commercial
Clarifying the Boundary Between Free and Nonfree
The freedom to run the program as You wish
The freedom to study the source code and make changes
The freedom to redistribute if you wish: basic requirements
Copyleft
Rules about packaging and distribution details
Export regulations
Legal considerations
Contract-based licenses
The Free Software Definition in Practice
How we interpret these criteria
Get help with free licenses
"free
"Open
open