Networking and Open Standards (OLD) - Free and Open Source Software
CBSE Class 12 Informatics Practices
Revision Notes
Chapter - 1
FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE(OSS)
Free Software: It means a software which is freely accessible, free to use, changed, improved, copied, distributed without any payments. Free software is a program used and distributed at no charge to the user. Richard Stallman, founder of the Free software movment (2009).
Four kinds of freedom
1. Freedom to run the program for any purpose.
2. Freedom to redistribute copies.
3. Freedom to study how the program works.
4. Freedom to improve the program and release your improvements to the public.
Open Source Software(OSS)
Definition: The categories of software / programs whose licenses do not impose much conditions. Open Source means the software which source code is freely available. Source code means the code of any program. Many Operating system is available in the market but most probably Linux Operating System.
OSS work on four basic principles :
1. The user can run the application for any purpose - anyone, anywhere, anyhow.
2. The user can study how the application is made, and modify it for his/her needs.
3. The user can make copies of the application, or for money. 4. The user can publicly redistribute his changes.
It can be freely used for modifications, but it does not have to be free of charge. Its source code is available.
Criteria for the distribution of open source software
1. Free distribution
2. Source code
3. Derived works
4. Integrity of the Author’s Source code
5. No discrimination against fields of endeavor.
6. Distribution of License
7. License must not be specific to a product
8. License must not restrict other software
FOSS (free and open software)
Free software- no payments
Open source software- for technical progress
OSS and FLOSS
•OSS- Source code is available
(open source modified and redistributed software) free of cost or with nominal charge.
•FLOSS- (free libre and open source software)
FSF(free software foundation)
Founded by Richard Stallman in 1985 to support GNU project.
Non-profit organization created for the purpose of supporting free software movement
GNU (free and open source)
Objective: To create a system compatible to unix but not identical with it.
Now it offers a wide range of software, including applications apart from operating system.
Proprietary software (neither open nor freely available)
Definition- Its use is regulated and further distribution and modification is either forbidden or requires special permission by the supplier Source code is not available.
Freeware
•Free of cost
•Copying and further distribution but not modification.
•Source code is not available
•Eg. MS IE
Shareware
•Right to redistribute copies
•After a certain period of time license fee should be paid.
•Source code is not available.
•Modifications is not possible.
Objective- to increase user’s will to pay for the software. Limits functionality after a trial period of 1-3 months.
Some Softwares
LINUX
• Linux: - free and open source Operating System(System Software).
• It can be downloaded from www.linux.org
• Linux is a part of popular webserver program LAMP (Linux, apache, MySql, PHP).
Mozilla
• Freeware
• No source code available
• free internet software
It can be download from www.mozilla.org
Apache Server
• Apache HTTP server is an open source web server.
• It is component of LAMP.
It can be downloaded from www.apache.org
Software | Source code | Free | Modification | Redistribution | Example |
OSS | YES | May or may not | YES | YES | PHP |
FLOSS | YES | YES | YES | YES | Linux |
GNU | YES | YES | YES | YES | Project |
FSF | YES | YES | YES | YES | GNU not unix |
Proprietary | NO | NO | NO | NO | Oracle, VB |
Shareware | NO | Trial period | NO | NO | Python |
Freeware | NO | YES | NO | YES | IE, Mozilla |
