Photo courtesy of Think Ubuntu. SOFTWARE AS COOKING. Freedom for computer use can be compared with cooking, according to Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation. You should be able to do four things:
0. Freedom to use the recipe (or software) when you want
1. Freedom to look at ingredients and change them
2. Freedom to copy recipes and share with your friend
3. Freedom to write down your version of a recipe and give it to the community
These are four essential freedoms for software use as well.
Learn more from GNU website (courtesy http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html):
“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.”
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it means that the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this. (END of citation)
THE PHILOSOPHER. Richard Stallman is behind the GNU project that Linux became a part of. He says nobody knows how people actually use software. Indeed, he does not want tracking of free software.
Stallman rather wants you to defend the four freedoms of free software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:051118-WSIS.2005-Richard.Stallman.ogg
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