Free, Freedom & The GPL
February 27, 2008
The concept of Free software is often confused by the fact that it generally costs nothing to obtain. Lets be clear on this straight away. Free and Freedom are two distinct things. The more you begin to delve into the world of Open Source Software, you will come across the term “Free as in beer”. This is to distinguish between software that “costs nothing” to the consumer and software that is “free to alter and redistribute” - Open Source.
“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 refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
* The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
GNU.ORG - What is Free Software
This freedom is the very antithesis of companies such as Microsoft. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO once proclaimed “Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches“. The fact that Ballmer purposefully misread or drew his own shaky conclusions from the GPL text in order to malign the Free Software philosophy shows the rampant arrogance, and an almost teenage level of insecurity, that Microsoft displays which can only compete with their soaring paranoia.
Of course Microsoft, not quite the all powerful dictator it once was, is now finding itself not only backtracking, but realises, as a company with increasing litigation and competition, it may need to think about sharing the ball if it wants to be allowed to play. Microsoft and Novell announced in 2006 that they would play together. This collaboration then started to extend to other Linux distributions such as Xandros and strangely enough, considering their raging lawsuit against them and forcing them to drop the “Lindows” moniker, Linspire
However, just to make sure everyone knew they were still the boss, Microsoft then started to complain again.
Why is Microsoft so keen to rubbish the concept of Free Software. Simple. Their business relies on closed source software. As a company their profits rely on patents, intellectual property rights and privacy. They play their cards close to their chests because that’s how they survive.
Unfortunately for them, the computer world is evolving. Linux is estimated to be used by 30 million people worldwide. Huge corporations such as Wal-Mart and Goldman Sachs, along with over half the companies in the Fortune 500 use Linux on a daily basis. It is rock solid stable and due to its filing system is pretty much impervious to internet viruses and worms. It has a colossal developer foundation, is constantly updated and supremely customisable.
For the end user there are many advantages. You can download the latest distro from the web, for free; install it on as many machines as you like, for free; dig into the code and change it, for free; stay safe and secure on the internet, for free; add, change, replace, manipulate, give away, receive, create, inspire, rewrite, use - for free. The best thing being, you’re actually encouraged to.
Maybe its time we stopped pandering to the Microsoft stranglehold. You can start the process tonight.
Install Linux and be inspired!
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