Everything About ___
Live briefing

Everything about Free software

Software licensed to be freely used, modified and distributed

Free software or libre software, sometimes known as freedom-respecting software, is computer software distributed under free software licenses that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices. Wikipedia ā†’

šŸ§­ Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: Free softwareA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Free and open source urbanism: Software for urban planning practiceInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: Debugging with GDBThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: Investigation of the freely available easy-to-use software ā€˜EZRā€™ for medical statisticsCited 18,111 times
  5. Go sideways: GNU ProjectA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: GNUA closely related topic

šŸ“– Definitions

Noun Software that can be freely copied, redistributed and modified, including source code; software that is libre.

Noun Any software that is free of charge, such as freeware.

šŸ—‚ļø The subject at a glance

  1. Context
  2. Definition and the four essential freedoms of free software
  3. Examples
  4. History
  5. Licensing
  6. Security and reliability
  7. Business model
  8. Economic aspects and adoption

šŸ† Landmark papers (most cited)

šŸ†• Influential since 2022

šŸ“š Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

šŸ”— Related topics