The term FOSS stands for “Free and Open Source Software.” The definition of a free software is a software that gives the user the freedom to share, study and modify the program (“Free Software”). This is the foundation of a learning society which enables us to share our knowledge and build on it. The man behind the free software movement was computer scientist Richard M. Stallman. Stallman worked as a researcher at MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (“The Difference Between”, 2017). He was frustrated by the spread of proprietary software which denies the freedoms and benefits of sharing and modifying the program. Stallman viewed this as a violation of people’s rights to innovate and improve existing software. In 1983, he launched the GNU movement as a response to proprietary software for placing restrictions on users and developers (Drake 2017).). Stallman envisioned a complete operating system that would enable its users with the freedom to view, change, and share its source code through this project.
In 1985, he built on the GNU project by creating the Free Software Foundation (FSF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the concept of free software to the public (“Why”Free Software“). Free software is widely available today and millions of people around the world have access to free software on their computers because of this successful movement that has revolutionized the world (”Why “Free Software”). It is important to note that a common misconception of this term left people under the impression that free software also meant obtaining the software at zero cost (Drake 2017). The FSF clarifies this definition by stating to view the notion of free software as “free speech and not free beer.” According to the FSF, the license of a software must adhere to the following four essential freedoms for the software to be considered free software (Drake 2017).
Freedom 1: User has the freedom to run the program for any purpose without any restrictions imposed.
Freedom 2: User has the freedom to study and change the program. Access to the source code to modify the program is a precondition.
Freedom 3: User has the freedom to share copies with anyone.
Freedom 4: User has the freedom to share copies of the modified version, enabling the community to learn from the changes. Access to source code is a precondition.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was founded by Raymond and Bruce Perens to encourage the spread of open-source principles (“The Difference Between”, 2017). The OSI developed a list of ten principles that constitutes the open-source definition for a software to be considered “open-source.”
1. Free Redistribution -The license should not impose any restrictions from selling or sharing the software to other sources.
2. Source Code - The program must include source code and must allow distribution in source code and compiled form.
3. Derived Works - The license must permit modifications and derived works and allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code - The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of “patch files.”
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups - The license must not discriminate against any individual or group of people.
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor - The license must not restrict anyone from using the program for any purpose.
7. Distribution of License - The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product - The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution.
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software - The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software.
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral - No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.
The terms free software and open-source software is used interchangeably by people, however, there has been a debate on the differences between the two. The difference between the two movements is in their values, their ways of looking at the world. For the Open Source movement, the issue of whether software should be open source is a practical question, not an ethical one (“Why”Free Software“”, 2016). For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a suboptimal solution. On the other hand, for the Free Software movement, non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution (“Why”Free Software“”, 2016). The FOSS movement is a response to put an end to the debate. The Free and Open Source Software movement provides tools and processes for us to create, exchange, share and exploit software and knowledge efficiently and effectively. This model allows us to have control over the technology we use everyday whether that is for personal or commercial use. The S language is an example of a language and system that has evolved over its long history. The S language and system is used for organizing, visualizing, and analyzing data which was invented at Bell Labs (“The S System, 2001”). The S-plus language is based on the S software from Bell Labs; MathSoft has an exclusive license with Lucent Technologies to distribute software based on S from Bell Labs. The R language is an example of an open-source system distributed under the GPL license which is sometimes described as a “free clone” of S (“The S System, 2001”).
Drake, Mark. “The Difference Between Free and Open-Source Software.” Digital Ocean, 30 Oct.2017, www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/Free-vs-Open-Source-Software.
“Free software is software that gives you the user the freedom to share, study and modify it. We call this free software because the user is free.” Free Software Foundation, www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software.
“The S System.” Bell Labs, 1 Jan. 2001, ect.bell-labs.com/sl/S/.
“Why”Free Software" is better than “Open Source”." GNU Operating System, 18 Nov. 2016, www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.en.html#relationship.