:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       e8c1218f-35a4-4dd3-a174-5d8f848b74b2
:END:
#+title: Free software
#+date: 2021-07-22 14:25:13 +08:00
#+date_modified: 2021-08-29 01:08:22 +08:00
#+language: en


Per [[roam:Free Software Foundation]]:

#+begin_quote
Free software means that the users have the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software.
#+end_quote

- a software that is primarily concerned with the liberty of the user regards to the software;
  thus, a dedicated user can influence the project working in the same realm as the team
- one of the major components for [[roam:Free culture]] movement
- "free as in free speech, not as in beer" is a popular phrase to describe the idea;
  thus, also applying that free software doesn't have to be free in price but it should still support the idea of openness with software
- despite the moniker, several companies have been making profits from free software
  + [[roam:Red Hat]] is one of the biggest for-profit companies from selling support for Linux-based ecosystems
  + Sony made the operating systems for PS3, PS4, and PS5 from roam:FreeBSD
  + roam:Microsoft has been making free software (e.g., [[roam:Visual Studio Code]], roam:TypeScript)
- practically, a lot of the free software applications are created and maintained by volunteers in their spare time
- furthermore, a lot of them are user-centric (e.g., roam:GNUnet, [[id:be917383-84c4-4bf5-9ca0-b04bfb778f4f][Guix package manager]]) usually catering to power users and tinkerers with options for advanced configurations
- due to their open nature, it often represents how [[id:d73e539c-5bf5-4853-99bb-ac95dd52fbc3][Openness makes diversity]] with the options to create forks of the software
- most of them are also interested in compatibility as opposed to creating ecosystem from scratch;
  it is likely motivated from just pragmatism
  + roam:Inkscape offers importing from formats from its competitors such a Adobe Illustrator AI format
  + roam:LibreOffice can open several versions of Microsoft Word documents [fn:: To be fair, =DOC= format is an open standard at this point.] and AppleWorks documents
