View source for Free Software

Free Software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions only to ensure that end users have the same freedoms as the original authors.

A piece of Free Software acquires the corresponding legal status by the use of a [[Free Software License]]. The difference between Free Software and [[Freeware]] is in the form of license that is granted for use. Free Software has either to be accompanied by a [[Free Software license]], or to be in the public domain. Freeware by contrast is accompanied by a
[[Copyright]].

The intent of free software is expressed as follows by Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software movement: 

: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'". More specifically, free software means that computer users have the freedom to cooperate with whom they choose, and to control the software they use. 

For alternative terms for Free Software, see [[Free and Open Source Software]].

==Links==
*Wikipedia article on Free Software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software 
*Wikipedia article on Alternative terms for free software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_terms_for_free_software"
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_licence

[[Category:FOSS Concepts]]
[[Category:FOSS]]