What Is a Free Software

Free software is a type of software that can be studied, modified, improved and distributed with minimal restrictions. The purpose for restrictions is to ensure continued distribution of these programs without limiting the rights of other users to use, copy, distribute, study, change and improve. Such rights are usually restricted by proprietary software. Free software is generally available free of charge, but gratuities are not necessary. On the internet you can find software like this as free download. The most common free application software is free anti virus downloads or free photo editor software. Also, the concept of free software is used in other areas than the creation of programs; Wikipedia is one of these initiatives.

To be considered as free software, the source code must be distributed with a notice to describe and enable freedoms listed above. Such a note is called a software license. An example of free software license is GPL, the most often used license. The programs within a public domain are considered free software if the source code of the program is available.

The Free Software Movement (Free Software Movement, abbreviated FSM) was initiated in 1983 by Richard Stallman as a social and political movement that had as purpose the preservation of fundamental freedoms of users. To advance this movement, Stallman founded in 1985 the non-profit Free Software Foundation. From its beginnings, the Free Software Foundation was involved in developing software in the GNU project and then had as an objective to expand in licensing activities in creating software and the creation of the free software community. In 2005 it was created The Software Freedom Law Center in order to protect and advance the legal movement. Other common terms in the free software movement that have been identified are 'software libre', 'free and open source software' (FOSS) and 'free, libre and open source software' (FLOSS). The free software that can be distributed free of charge or not does not have to be confused with freeware programs that do not allow the activities of reverse engineering, modification and, in some cases free redistribution or even with open source software that only refers to the programs with an available source code.