You should have asked yourself many times — ” what is a Free Software ” ? 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.

For a software to be called free, it should grant 4 types of freedom to the user. they are :

Freedom 0 : The freedom to run the program, for any purpose

Freedom1 : The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Freedom2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.

Freedom3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits . Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

So a program is a free software if the user have all the four rights.

Read more about concepts of Free Software here.

Richard Stallman explains what a Free Software is…

Tags: Free, Open, Richard stallman, software