Submitted by SirGrant on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 10:23
Revision of Glossary of Free Software Terms from Sat, 04/14/2012 - 03:20
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This manual contains a list of free software terms.
Terms
- Binary blob: Object code distributed without source code.
- Copyleft: Is the use of copyright to make sure that a piece of software and any modified and extended versions of it remain free software. The primary example of a copyleft software license is the GNU General Public License
- See: What is Copyleft?
- See: Why Copyleft?
- Distribution: A configuration of software which comprises an operating system. The software can vary depending on the goal of the distribution. For example, Musix's software configuration is designed for music production.
- Distribution (Legal):
- DRM: Digital Restrictions Management
- Free Software: Free Software is software that respects your freedom. To be considered Free Software the software must provide the:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as 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.
- See: The Free Software Definition
- Quote: "Free as in speech, not as in beer."
- Source code:
- Freeware: Proprietary software that is distributed at no charge. This sort of software should not be confused with free software as it does not respect your freedom.
- GNU General Public License (GPL)
- GNU's not Unix! (GNU): GNU is a Unix-like operating system comprised of free software. The GNU software packages are often combined with the Linux kernel forming the combination known as GNU/Linux.
- Linux: A kernel developed by Linus Torvalds et al. The Linux kernel is mostly free software however it does contains some non-free software and is not suitable in it's current state for usage in fully free distributions.
- Linux-libre: A project maintained by the Free Software Foundation Latin America which removes all non-free parts from the plain Linux kernel.
- See: Linux-libre Homepage
- Nonfree Software: Software which fails to meet the definition of free software. It will fail to meet the standard of one or more of the four freedoms listed in the definition of free software.
- Proprietary: Alternative term. See Nonfree Software
- Richard Stallman (RMS): Founder of the GNU Project and Free Software Foundation.
- Root: The super user on a GNU/Linux system. This is also known as the administrator of the system. They have access to all files and permissions.
Revisions
02/18/2013 - 00:56
anonymous
