Free software

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Freedo the penguin, mascot of the Linux-libre operating system kernel, which is comprised of entirely FLOSS components.

Free software, alternatively known as libre or copyleft software is software which is not proprietary. It may be used, shared and adapted freely under the condition that it retains its free status. Often such software is created according to a peer-to-peer development model.

Terminology

The ambiguity of the English word "free" has led to issues of nomenclature throughout the history of the free software movement. Programmers have used several terms to distinguish the economic sense of the word ("free as in beer" or gratis) from its philosophical meaning ("free as in freedom" or libre). The terms that are currently most used include FOSS (free and open source software) and FLOSS (free/libre open source software), combining the open-source and free software movements as well as replacing the confusing term free with a clear acronym. However, it is important to note that open source software is not the same as free software: open-source code is considered unfree by free software advocates because it allows the code to be repurposed for proprietary uses.[1][2][3] Tech giants have spent decades resisting free software[4] but have overwhelmingly adopted business models based on unfree open-source licenses, allowing them to exploit volunteer coders and bug-fixers on a massive scale.[5][6][7][8] Richard Stallman, considered to be the founder and longtime leader of the free software movement, has also argued that free software is open-source by definition, rendering terms like FOSS and FLOSS redundant and even misleading.

Overview

Definitions

Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation defines free software as having:[9]

  • The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
  • 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.

Applications

Operating systems

Several operating systems (OSes) are composed, primarily or fully, of libre components. Most distributions of GNU/Linux are free and open source, as are many modern BSD-derived operating systems. The Free Software Foundation recommends operating systems based on the Linux-libre kernel instead of the standard Linux kernel due to the latter still containing proprietary blobs.[10]

Political content

As a revolutionary project

From a Marxist perspective, the free software movement is a political struggle against the capitalist enclosure of the intellectual commons. To some degree, it is an organised effort to create a social alternative to the prevailing private order. However, this fact is rarely acknowledged by participants in the free software community, and therefore it cannot be regarded as conscious of the political nature of its struggle. Free software developers come from a variety of political and apolitical backgrounds, and thus the movement tends to be wary of discussing political implications along traditional ideological lines. Instead it maintains its own internal ideological discourse devoid of a broader understanding of the economy.

As a capitalist institution

Software is material

It is easy to idealize free software as free of centralized control and therefore socialist, but this ignores a number of important factors.

Although in principle anyone can copy it, free software may still have a canonical distributor that decides upon official editions. These are then the editions that everyone uses, and to go off and use another edition isolates a user from the added value this network of fellow users and developers offers. In this way, free software can still be considered proprietary software, and be used to extract a profit.

Likewise, consider the end users applying the software. While in principle anyone can use the software for whatever ends, only established institutions are able to apply them in a socioeconomically significant way. Changing this reality requires a rearrangement of productive relations outside of the scope of the free software movement.

Difficulty with consumer products

Since participants in the free software movement tend to be computer experts, the software they produce tends to be unfit for widespread use by consumers. Corporations, whose continued existence relies on being able to market their software, are much more effective at providing an accessible product. Likewise they will have more resources to push their product onto the market, and will therefore be able to amass a user base much more quickly.

As a socialist institution

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Open Source Definition". Open Source Initiative. 2006-07-07. Retrieved 2023-06-28. #6: The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
  2. ↑ Stallman, Richard (2009-02-07). "GNU Project - Free Software Foundation". Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  3. ↑ Franklin, Curtis Jr. (2015-12-01). "Richard Stallman Is Not The Father Of Open Source". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  4. ↑ Greene, Thomas C (2001-06-02). "Ballmer: 'Linux is a cancer'". The Register. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  5. ↑ Lifshitz-Assaf, Hila; Nagle, Frank (2021-09-02). "The Digital Economy Runs on Open Source. Here's How to Protect It". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  6. ↑ Warren, Tom (2020-05-18). "Microsoft: we were wrong about open source". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  7. ↑ "Microsoft: The open source company". Ars Technica. 2019-05-10. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  8. ↑ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven (2015-04-16). "It's an open-source world: 78 percent of companies run open-source software". ZDNET. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  9. ↑ "What is Free Software?" by the GNU Project.
  10. ↑ "Free GNU/Linux distributions" gnu.org

External links

Online leftist analyses of free software:

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