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@ -8,6 +8,45 @@ Free software is also known as *free as in freedom*, *free as in speech* softwar
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**Examples of free software** include the [GNU](gnu.md) operating system (also known as "[Linux](linux.md)"), [GIMP](gimp.md) (image editor), [Stockfish](stockfish.md) chess engine, or games such as [Xonotic](xonotic.md) and [Anarch](anarch.md). Free software is actually what runs the world, it is a standard among experts and it is possible to do computing with exclusively free software (though this may depend on how far you stretch the definition), even though most normal people don't even know the term free software exists because they only ever come in contact with abusive [proprietary](proprietary.md) consumer software such as [Windows](windows.md) and capitalist [games](game.md). There also exists a lot of big and successful software, such as [Firefox](firefox.md), [Linux](linux.md) (the kernel) or [Blender](blender.md), that's often spoken of as free software which may however be only technically true or true only to a big (but not full) degree: for example even though [Linux](linux.md) is 99% free, in its [vanilla](vanilla.md) version it comes with [proprietary](proprietary.md) [binary blobs](binary_blob.md) which breaks the rules of free software. [Blender](blender.md) is technically free but it is also [capitalist software](capitalist_software.md) which doesn't really care about freedom and may de-facto limit some freedoms required by free software, even if they are granted legally by Blender's license. Such software is better called "[open source](open_source.md)" or [FOSS](foss.md) because it doesn't meet the high standards of free software. This issue of technically-but-not-really free software is addressed by some newer movements and philosophies such as [suckless](suckless.md) and our [less retarded software](lrs.md) who usually also aim for [unbloating](bloat.md) technology so as to make it more free in practice.
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```
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____________________
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.------------------------>| public source code |<-----. defined
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; .---------------->|____________________| ; always mainly _____
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; ; .------^ ; has ALL by | FSF |
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; ; "should"; _______________________ ; ,-->|_____|
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; ; have; | unlimited | ; ;
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;doesn't; "most"; | use+stud+modify+share | ; _______ ; _________ high focus on
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;have ; _____ ; |_______________________| ; | libre | ; main_.>| freedom |<------------.
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; ; | OSI | ; ^ allows ^. ; |_______| ; goal_.' |_________| ;
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; has; |_____| ; ; by allows'. ; ^ ; is_.' ______________ ;
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; ; ^ ; ; license by'. ; AKA ; ; _.' | free culture |generalizes ;
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; ; ;defined ; ____;___ license '.;______;_;_.' __..--|______________|<--. _.-'
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; ; ;by '--| open | | free |<--''generalizes ___;_.-''
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; ; '-----------| source |<----------------->| software |<-------------------------| LRS |--.
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___;____ ;__________ .--|________| legally very |__________|<-..__ generalizes |_____| ;
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| closed | | source | ; ^ ; ^. similar to .^ ; ^._ ''--_ ; ; ; primary
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| source | | available | ; ; ; neutral'. _________ .'neutral ; '. ;is ; ; ; focus
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|________| |___________| ; ; ; synonm '| F(L)OSS |'synonym ;is ; ;subset ; ; ; on
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; ; ; ; ; for |_________| for ;always ; ;of generalizes; ; _v_________
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; is; ; ; ; ______________ ; ; ___;______ ; ; | happiness |
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; subset; main ; ; '------>| free of cost |<---------' ; | suckless |<---------' ; | of all |
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; of; goal is ; ; is |______________|<-._ ________ ; |__________| ; | life |
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; ; ; ; always ^ ^. AKA'->| gratis | ; ; high ; |___________|
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;is ; _______v ; ; '.AKA |________| ; ;primary focus ;
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;subset ; | profit | ; ; 'v __________ ^ ; ;focus on on ;
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;of ; |________| ; is ; | freeware | AKA ; ; ___v________ ;
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; ; ^ ; opposite ; |__________|<----' ; | simplicity |<---------'
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; ; main ; ; of ; ; |____________|
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; ; goal is ; ; ; may be is ;
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; ; ; '----------. ; opposite ;
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; ; '----------. ; ; of ;
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; ; _;__v_____;___________ ;
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; '------------------>| proprietary software |<--------------'
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'---------------------------->|______________________|
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```
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*Knowledge graph illustrating basic relationships between various terms and groups related to free software.*
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Though unknown to common people, the invention and adoption of free software has been **one the most important events in the [history](history.md) of computers** -- mere technology consumers nowadays don't even realize (and aren't told) that what they're using consists and has been enabled possibly mostly by software written non-commercially, by volunteers for free, **basically on [communist](communism.md) principles**. Even if [consumer](consumerism.md) technology is unethical because the underlying free technology has been modified by [corporations](corporation.md) to abuse the users, without free software the situation would have been yet incomparably worse if [Richard Stallman](rms.md) hadn't achieved the small miracle of establishing the free software movement. Without it there would probably be practically no alternative to abusive technology nowadays, everything would be much more closed, there would probably be no "[open source](open_source.md)", "[open hardware](open_hardware.md)" such as [Arduino](arduino.md) and things such as [Wikipedia](wikipedia.md). If the danger of [intellectual property](intellectual_property.md) in software wasn't foreseen and countered by Richard Stallman right in the start, the corporations' push of legislation would probably have continued and copyright [laws](law.md) might have been many times worse today, to the point of not even being able to legally write free software nowadays. We have to be very grateful that this happened and continue to support free software.
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[Richard Stallman](rms.md), the inventor of the concept and the term "free software", says free software is about ensuring the freedom of computer users, i.e. people truly owning their tools -- he points out that unless people have complete control over their tools, they don't truly own them and will instead become controlled and abused by the makers (true owners) of those tools, which in [capitalism](capitalism.md) are [corporations](corporation.md). Richard Stallman stressed that **there is no such thing as partially free software** -- it takes only a single line of code to take away the user's freedom and therefore if software is to be free, it has to be free as a whole. This is in direct contrast with [open source](open_source.md) (a term discourages by Stallman himself) which happily tolerates for example [Windows](windows.md) only programs and accepts them as "open source", even though such a program cannot be run without the underlying proprietary code of the platform. It is therefore important to support free software rather than the business spoiled open source.
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@ -99,4 +138,6 @@ After some years dealing with software freedom (in serious ways, making money do
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- [copyfree](copyfree.md)
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- [freedom distance](freedom_distance.md)
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- [FreeLore](freelore.md)
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- [freeware](freeware.md)
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- [shareware](shareware.md)
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- [kosher software](kosher_software.md)
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