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Shown are the GNOME desktop environment, the GNU Emacs text editor, the GIMP image editor, and the VLC media player. Free software, libre software, or libreware [1] [2] is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions.
The application software layer interfaces with the operating system, which in turn communicates with the hardware. The arrows indicate information flow. Software is a collection of programs and data that tell a computer how to perform specific tasks. Software often includes associated software documentation. [1]
"Free and open-source software" (FOSS) is an umbrella term for software that is simultaneously considered both free software and open-source software. The precise definition of the terms "free software" and "open-source software" applies them to any software distributed under terms that allow users to use, modify, and redistribute said software in any manner they see fit, without requiring ...
Wiki software (also known as a wiki engine or a wiki application) is collaborative software that runs a wiki, which allows the users to create and collaboratively edit pages or entries via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application that runs on one or more web servers. The content, including previous revisions, is usually stored ...
The Free Software Definition written by Richard Stallman and published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), defines free software as being software that ensures that the users have freedom in using, studying, sharing and modifying that software. The term "free" is used in the sense of "free speech," not of "free of charge." [1]
The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. [1] [2] Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software .
This is a list of free and open-source software packages, computer software licensed under free software licenses and open-source licenses.Software that fits the Free Software Definition may be more appropriately called free software; the GNU project in particular objects to their works being referred to as open-source.
In the 1950s and 1960s, computer operating software and compilers were delivered as a part of hardware purchases without separate fees. At the time, source code, the human-readable form of software, was generally distributed with the software providing the ability to fix bugs or add new functions. [1] Universities were early adopters of ...