{"id":27516,"key":"Free_software","title":"Free software","latest":{"id":1222981,"timestamp":"2026-01-08T21:38:40Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"'''Free Software''' is software users are free to share, explore and modify. It brings the philosophy of [education], sharing and collaborative development seen in other sciences to the art of computer programming.\n\nFrom the [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html Free Software Definition]:\n<blockquote>“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.” Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it means that the program's users have the four essential freedoms:\n\n* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).\n* The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.\n* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).\n* The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.\n\n</blockquote>\nNotable Free Software projects include the GNU/[[Linux]] operating system, Mozilla Firefox web browser, and [http://apache.org Apache] web server, which powers two thirds of the World Wide Web.<br>\n\n== Business &amp; Government use ==\n\nFree Software is used extensively by big businesses, including the majority of FTSE 100 companies, as well as governments (particularly in Latin America). Recent moves to Web Apps and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SaaS] instead of individual desktop apps, has seen a rise in flexible Free Software Content Management Systems, such as [http://plone.org Plone] and [http://drupal.org Drupal] - both of which are used extensively in Charity and Public Sector websites.\n\nThe term is often used interchangably with [[Open Source]], however Open Source is a pragmatic approach to collaborative development, whereas Free Software is a self-concious attempt to protect users' freedoms - the end results may be the same, but the difference is in the philosophy &amp; the approach.\n\n----\n\n== See Also ==\n\n* [[Linux]]\n* [[Open source software]]\n\n== External links ==\n\n* [http://www.fsf.org/ Free Software Foundation]\n* [http://fsfe.org/ Free Software Foundation Europe]\n\n{{Page data\n| license = CC-BY-SA-3.0\n| description = Free software principles let users share and improve code. Appropedia notes freedoms, licenses, and why it supports education.\n}}\n\n[[Category:Free software]]\n[[Category:Open source software]]\n[[Category:Software]]"}