Lecture 6: Free and Open software

Free and Open source software was the topic covered today. We first identified the common programs we use daily on our home computers such as; Internet Explorer, McAfee, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, MSN messenger, iTunes, Windows etc. These programs are routinely used for what ever it is we are doing on the computer at the time. They are all examples of non-Free software. Source codes are instructions for the computer to be able to make the programs work. Software used to be free and was open to anyone who wanted to use it. It was available to be shared amongst the community and open to be contributed to. This enabled people to share code and programs freely with each other and not worry about the legal issues. This was likened to a ‘recipe’ shared amongst friends where you could change an ingredient in the recipe to best suit your taste. This soon changed when software became commercialised, which meant that it was now illegal to alter, change or share software to suit yourself. Microsoft started the train of commercialising their software and soon saw a following of other companies doing the same.

This move is what encouraged the founding of the Free Software Foundation in 1981 by Richard Stallman. His aim was to create and develop a Unix-like free operating system from software that was already free therefore GNU (Gnu Not Unix) was made. This is known as the Free Software Movement. Richard Stallman developed the concept of the 4 Freedoms: Freedom Zero (Help us: Run program for any use), Freedom One (Help self: Study how programs work), Freedom Two (Help neighbour: Redistribution of copies), Freedom Three (Help community: Improve program and release it to the public). Freedom Three is only valid if you have studies the software and understand how it works as the soft ware is still licensed but is free.

The word ‘Open’ has now replaced ‘Free’ in describing the way in which is it used. Open is not always free. Open source is also used by businesses: they buy the software and are then able to customize it for their business therefore it is open but not free. FOSS is Free/Open source software. This is where the two types of software can be differentiated. Proprietary software is closed software such as Windows Vista, source code is confidential, development made by company employees, finished software product sold, traditional software production. Open source software like Linux and Fire Fox is free and available to everyone, under limited-rights licence, development by community, produsage software, money made from providing a service for software like training on how to use it.