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| author |   Patrick J Volkerding <volkerdi@slackware.com> | 2009-08-26 10:00:38 -0500 |
|---|---|---|
| committer |   Eric Hameleers <alien@slackware.com> | 2018-05-31 22:41:17 +0200 |
| commit | 5a12e7c134274dba706667107d10d231517d3e05 (patch) | |
| tree | 55718d5acb710fde798d9f38d0bbaf594ed4b296 /slackbook/html/introduction-opensource.html | |
| download | current-5a12e7c134274dba706667107d10d231517d3e05.tar.gz current-5a12e7c134274dba706667107d10d231517d3e05.tar.xz | |
Slackware 13.0slackware-13.0
Wed Aug 26 10:00:38 CDT 2009
Slackware 13.0 x86_64 is released as stable! Thanks to everyone who
helped make this release possible -- see the RELEASE_NOTES for the
credits. The ISOs are off to the replicator. This time it will be a
6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD.
We're taking pre-orders now at store.slackware.com. Please consider
picking up a copy to help support the project. Once again, thanks to
the entire Slackware community for all the help testing and fixing
things and offering suggestions during this development cycle.
As always, have fun and enjoy! -P.
Diffstat (limited to 'slackbook/html/introduction-opensource.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | slackbook/html/introduction-opensource.html | 126 |
1 files changed, 126 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/slackbook/html/introduction-opensource.html b/slackbook/html/introduction-opensource.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eeeda9e57 --- /dev/null +++ b/slackbook/html/introduction-opensource.html @@ -0,0 +1,126 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" /> +<title>Open Source and Free Software</title> +<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7" /> +<link rel="HOME" title="Slackware Linux Essentials" href="index.html" /> +<link rel="UP" title="An Introduction to Slackware Linux" href="introduction.html" /> +<link rel="PREVIOUS" title="What is Slackware?" href="introduction-slackware.html" /> +<link rel="NEXT" title="Help" href="help.html" /> +<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="docbook.css" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> +</head> +<body class="SECT1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" +alink="#0000FF"> +<div class="NAVHEADER"> +<table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" +cellspacing="0"> +<tr> +<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href="introduction-slackware.html" +accesskey="P">Prev</a></td> +<td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom">Chapter 1 An Introduction to Slackware +Linux</td> +<td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="help.html" +accesskey="N">Next</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" /> +</div> + +<div class="SECT1"> +<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="INTRODUCTION-OPENSOURCE" name="INTRODUCTION-OPENSOURCE">1.3 Open +Source and Free Software</a></h1> + +<p>Within the Linux community, there are two major ideological movements at work. The +Free Software movement (which we'll get into in a moment) is working toward the goal of +making all software free of intellectual property restrictions. Followers of this +movement believe these restrictions hamper technical improvement and work against the +good of the community. The Open Source movement is working toward most of the same goals, +but takes a more pragmatic approach to them. Followers of this movement prefer to base +their arguments on the economic and technical merits of making source code freely +available, rather than the moral and ethical principles that drive the Free Software +Movement.</p> + +<p>At the other end of the spectrum are groups that wish to maintain tighter controls +over their software.</p> + +<p>The Free Software movement is headed by the Free Software Foundation, a fund-raising +organization for the GNU project. Free software is more of an ideology. The oft-used +expression is “free as in speech, not free as in beer”. In essence, free +software is an attempt to guarantee certain rights for both users and developers. These +freedoms include the freedom to run the program for any reason, to study and modify the +source code, to redistribute the source, and to share any modifications you make. In +order to guarantee these freedoms, the GNU General Public License (GPL) was created. The +GPL, in brief, provides that anyone distributing a compiled program which is licensed +under the GPL must also provide source code, and is free to make modifications to the +program as long as those modifications are also made available in source code form. This +guarantees that once a program is “opened” to the community, it cannot be +“closed” except by consent of every author of every piece of code (even the +modifications) within it. Most Linux programs are licensed under the GPL.</p> + +<p>It is important to note that the GPL does not say anything about price. As odd as it +may sound, you can charge for free software. The “free” part is in the +liberties you have with the source code, not in the price you pay for the software. +(However, once someone has sold you, or even given you, a compiled program licensed under +the GPL they are obligated to provide its source code as well.)</p> + +<p>Another popular license is the BSD license. In contrast to the GPL, the BSD license +gives no requirement for the release of a program's source code. Software released under +the BSD license allows redistribution in source or binary form provided only a few +conditions are met. The author's credentials cannot be used as a sort of advertisement +for the program. It also indemnifies the author from liability for damages that may arise +from the use of the software. Much of the software included in Slackware Linux is BSD +licensed.</p> + +<p>At the forefront of the younger Open Source movement, the Open Source Initiative is an +organization that solely exists to gain support for open source software, that is, +software that has the source code available as well as the ready-to-run program. They do +not offer a specific license, but instead they support the various types of open source +licenses available.</p> + +<p>The idea behind the OSI is to get more companies behind open source by allowing them +to write their own open source licenses and have those licenses certified by the Open +Source Initiative. Many companies want to release source code, but do not want to use the +GPL. Since they cannot radically change the GPL, they are offered the opportunity to +provide their own license and have it certified by this organization.</p> + +<p>While the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative work to help each +other, they are not the same thing. The Free Software Foundation uses a specific license +and provides software under that license. The Open Source Initiative seeks support for +all open source licenses, including the one from the Free Software Foundation. The +grounds on which each argues for making source code freely available sometimes divides +the two movements, but the fact that two ideologically diverse groups are working toward +the same goal lends credence to the efforts of each.</p> +</div> + +<div class="NAVFOOTER"> +<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" /> +<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" +cellspacing="0"> +<tr> +<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="introduction-slackware.html" +accesskey="P">Prev</a></td> +<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="index.html" +accesskey="H">Home</a></td> +<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><a href="help.html" +accesskey="N">Next</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">What is Slackware?</td> +<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="introduction.html" +accesskey="U">Up</a></td> +<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">Help</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</body> +</html> + |