FreeSoftware.md 6.1 KB
VCStudio is Free Software. People often call programs like this Open Source. But it's a mistake. Open Source just describes that the source code is available. Free Software on the other hand says that Software is Free. Free as in Freedom.
Free as in Freedom
A lot of people tent to use "Open Source" since Free Software confuses a lot of people. In English we have a problem. The word "Free" means both Freedom and Gratis. Free Software was called after terms like Free Country and Free Speech. But since software now a days are mostly commercial products. And Free Software tent to be gratis as well. Free Software name became confusing.
There were attempts to solve this issue. Like for example the unfortunate "Open Source" that stuck with the mainstream media. It did provide some clarity to some aspects of how Free Software is developed. But it unfortunately completely erased the philosophical ideas of Free Software.
Some people use the words Software Libre. It's a good substitute for most uses. But in some countries the word "Libre" doesn't exist. So it's a weird mismatch of unfortunate naming. If you speak not in English you can use your language version of Free Software meaning Software that gives people Freedom.
The Four Essential Freedoms
To qualify as Free Software, a given program has to give users the Four Essential Freedoms. Essential. Since if a program doesn't give those freedoms, the program is subjugating the user one way or another.
The Freedoms are:
- To run the software for what ever purpose at what ever time.
- To study how the software works and make modifications to it. For this you need access to the full source code.
- To share copies. Giving it away gratis or selling.
- To share copies of modified versions.
These four freedoms should come with the software, so the software would be Free. The user is not obligated to obey those freedoms. Since they are not rules. It's freedoms. They might or might not give you a copy of the program, but they have the freedom to do so. They might or might not change the source code, but they have the freedom to do so.
How Software gives people Freedoms?
In the law of most countries software is automatically copyrighted by the person who writes it. And only he can decide what to do with this software.
If he wants people to have some legal rights with the software, he needs to provide a legal document stating what right he gives and under which conditions. This type of document is called a license.
A Free Software license is the one that gives you the four essential freedoms. Many licenses just give you the freedoms and have no conditions. But some licenses like the GNU GPL protect user Freedom from malicious actors. By implementing Copyleft. Basically you are free to give or sell copies only if your copies will have the same freedoms as this one. If your copies will have this same license.
We are using the GNU GPL version 3 or any later GNU GPL license.
Why Software Freedom is important?
If you rely on something to make a particular task you should be able to control it. Think about having a heart implant with a program on it that can automatically update. But you cannot control what it does. Or how it monitors your heart. Some Company controls it. And they hold your life under their thumb.
For other computations the same is true but perhaps not as deadly. Like for example having software that spies on your entire life in exchange for some videos. Or having a program that is designed to be as addictive as possible. And since you can't change it, you become it's literal slave.
In some cases you will encounter a critical flaw in the software that perhaps only occurs for you. Even if you report the bug to the developer, they have all the reasons to ignore it since you are not the majority of the users. Like for example a game that doesn't run as smoothly under Wine. The developer doesn't care. Since he will probably develop it only for Windows. And he doesn't have budget or any incentive to care about your case.
Your personal need doesn't out-weight his greed.
The ability to fix the bug, remove malicious feature, or otherwise improve the software, so it will behave exactly the way you choose it to behave is essential. You get a copy, you get source code with it. So if you don't like something, you can manually change the program for yourself.
But why should we be free to give or sell copies of the software? Not all people are programmers. So hiring a programmer should be possible. You give him a copy. He modifies it. And sell you back the program with your desired modifications.
Also if you will release your copies to the world, the whole community might benefit from those changes. But this is also why Copyleft is important. Since without it any bad company will take your program and use it in their user-subjugating, proprietary garbage. So we should not allow it.
Learn more about Free Software
For general information about Free Software you can visit GNU.ORG. Also there you can learn about Free Software Philosophy and the dangers of non-free software. The proprietary malware.
For more information about licensing your own software you can check the License Comparison page. It lists a very large range of licenses and talks about pros and cons of each one. And also shows you whether it's a Free Software license and whether it's compatible with GNU GPL.
Help The Documentation
The documentation files are not perfect. And need maintenance.
If you are reading it from the VCStudio build in Documentation:
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to commit in our NotABug repository.
(C) J.Y.Amihud 2021. Under GPL v3 or later.