The free software community is also called the open source community or the Linux community. These terms refers to the collective users and developers of free software. Users of free software, more so than proprietary software, form a community because of the ability of all users to participate in the development and distribution of free software. Free software is a term used since 1983 to describe software whose source code is available, and which can be studied, copied, modified, and redistributed by anyone that receives a copy. ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... Proprietary software is software that has restrictions on using and copying it, usually enforced by a proprietor. ...

The free software community includes individuals, groups, and companies who use free software because they believe that the freedoms to help yourself and to collaborate with others should be fundamental human rights, and it includes those who see free software as a way to make money.

History

When the free software movement began in 1983, the community of users was mostly academics and computer programmers. The free software movement began in 1983 when Richard Stallman announced the GNU project. ...

In the late 1990s, as free software became easier to use, many companies became users, distributors, and developers of free software.

Communication structure

Most communication is done over the Internet via mailing lists and forums, and some is done at conferences. This can also be seen in the widespread use of the collaborative software development model. A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. ... The Collaborative software development model is a style of software development whose focus is on public availability and communication, usually via the Internet. ...

Well known websites which the free software community participate in are Slashdot, LWN, and Newsforge, although these are not exclusively used by the free software community. // Slashdot (often abbreviated as /.) is a technology-related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a nerdy slant. ... LWN.net is a computing news site with an emphasis on Free/Libre Open Source Software and software for Unix-like operating systems. ... NewsForge is an online newspaper for linux and open source, which is owned by the Open Source Technology Group (the same entity that owns thinkgeek. ...

Conferences include GUADEC, aKademy, FOSDEM, FISL, LinuxTag, and LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. The GNOME User and Developer European Conference, or GUADEC, is an annual conference taking place in Europe, around the GNOME desktop environment. ... The KDE aKademy, is an annual conference on the KDE Desktop Environment. ... Jimbo Wales speaking at FOSDEM 2005 Since 2001, the Free and Open source Software Developers European Meeting (commonly known as FOSDEM) is an annual 2-day event hosting talks, tutorials, and stalls for the free software/open source community. ... FISL (translated from portuguese, International Free Software Forum) is an event that happens every year in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern state of Brazil. ... LinuxTag (or more formally ) is a Free Software expo held every summer in the town of Karlsruhe in southern Germany. ... The 2006 LinuxWorld trade show at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center. ...

Recognisable characteristics

Some values which are nearly universal - as universal as values can be in a community of millions - are the preference for public discussion of technical matters, and opposition to software patents and parts of the DMCA. Software patents are a type of intellectual property and one of many legal aspects of computing. ... The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a controversial United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. ...

Disagreements

There are many contests within the community. Some of these are ageing "religious wars", such as the technical disputes from the 80s and early 90s over which text editor is superior, Emacs or Vim, or what version of a text editor is superior, GNU Emacs vs Xemacs. Others exist over naming (see Open source vs. free software, and GNU/Linux naming controversy). Notepad is the standard text editor for Microsoft Windows A text editor is a piece of computer software for editing plain text. ... This article is about the text editor. ... Vim, which stands for Vi IMproved, is an open-source, multiplatform text editor extended from vi. ... GNU Emacs is one of the two most popular versions of Emacs (see also XEmacs). ... XEmacs running under Fedora Core 2 XEmacs is a text editor derived from GNU Emacs. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... FSF artwork of the gnu (GNU mascot) and the penguin Tux (Linux kernel mascot) representing their viewpoint on GNU/Linux. The GNU General Public License (GPL), which is used by the Linux kernel as well as by most GNU software, armors both characters. ...

Companies entering the community

With the success of free software such as GNU/Linux, Apache HTTP Server, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org, many companies have begun interacting with the free software community. Some have found it difficult and have been surprised by the communities luke warm or critical response to their efforts.^{[citation needed]} Difficulties include the choice of free software licences, and the selection of what software will be released as free software. Unix systems filiation. ... Apache HTTP Server is a free software/open source web server for Unix-like systems, Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare and other platforms. ... Firefox redirects here. ... OpenOffice. ... Free software is software which grants recipients the freedom to modify and redistribute the software. ...

An example of a relatively successful entry to the free software community is Sun Microsystem's release of Star Office as OpenOffice.org under the GNU Lesser General Public License.^{[citation needed]} This was warmly received by the community since the free software community did not have a mature office suite at the time, so this was a welcome contribution. Using the community's preferred licence was also welcome because this allowed source code to be shared with other projects. Sun Microsystems (Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... StarOffice (also known as StarSuite in East Asia) is Sun Microsystems commercial office suite software package. ... OpenOffice. ... GNU logo The GNU Lesser General Public License (formerly the GNU Library General Public License) is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ...

An example of a more difficult entry to the free software community is that of Real Networks. Real Networks wrote their own licence, and released only parts of their software suite. Most notably, the codec - the software needed to view Real Video files, was not released. RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK) is a Seattle-based provider of Internet media delivery software and services. ... A Codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. ... RealVideo is a proprietary video codec developed by RealNetworks. ...

See also

Free software Portal

• Free software movement

Image File history File links Floss_draft. ... The free software movement began in 1983 when Richard Stallman announced the GNU project. ...

External links

• The Free Software Community After 20 Years, by Richard Stallman