History Free and open-source software

1 history

1.1 overview
1.2 free software
1.3 open source

history

in 1950s, 1960s, , 1970s 1980s, common computer users have source code programs used, , permission , ability modify own use. software, including source code, commonly shared individuals used computers, public domain software. companies had business model based on hardware sales, , provided or bundled software hardware, free of charge. organizations of users , suppliers formed facilitate exchange of software; see, example, share , decus.

by late 1960s, prevailing business model around software changing. growing , evolving software industry competing hardware manufacturer s bundled software products; rather funding software development hardware revenue, these new companies selling software directly. leased machines required software support while providing no revenue software, , customers able better meet own needs did not want costs of software bundled hardware product costs. in united states vs. ibm, filed 17 january 1969, government charged bundled software anticompetitive. while software might free, there growing amount of software sale only. in 1970s , 1980s, parts of software industry began using technical measures (such distributing binary copies of computer programs) prevent computer users being able use reverse engineering techniques study , customize software had paid for. in 1980, copyright law extended computer programs in united states—previously, computer programs considered ideas, procedures, methods, systems, , processes, not copyrightable.

early on, closed-source software uncommon until mid-1970s 1980s, when ibm implemented in 1983 object code policy not handing out anymore source code.

in 1983, richard stallman, longtime member of hacker community @ mit artificial intelligence laboratory, announced gnu project, saying had become frustrated effects of change in culture of computer industry , users. software development gnu operating system began in january 1984, , free software foundation (fsf) founded in october 1985. article outlining project , goals published in march 1985 titled gnu manifesto. manifesto included significant explanation of gnu philosophy, free software definition , copyleft ideas.

the linux kernel, started linus torvalds, released freely modifiable source code in 1991. initially, linux not released under free or open-source software license. however, version 0.12 in february 1992, relicensed project under gnu general public license. unix, torvalds kernel attracted attention of volunteer programmers.

freebsd , netbsd (both derived 386bsd) released free software when usl v. bsdi lawsuit settled out of court in 1993. openbsd forked netbsd in 1995. in 1995, apache http server, commonly referred apache, released under apache license 1.0.

in 1997, eric raymond published cathedral , bazaar, reflective analysis of hacker community , free software principles. paper received significant attention in 1998, , 1 factor in motivating netscape communications corporation release popular netscape communicator internet suite free software. code today better known mozilla firefox , thunderbird.

netscape s act prompted raymond , others how bring fsf s free software ideas , perceived benefits commercial software industry. concluded fsf s social activism not appealing companies netscape, , looked way rebrand free software movement emphasize business potential of sharing , collaborating on software source code. new name chose open source , , bruce perens, publisher tim o reilly, linus torvalds, , others signed on rebranding. open source initiative founded in february 1998 encourage use of new term , evangelize open-source principles.

while open source initiative sought encourage use of new term , evangelize principles adhered to, commercial software vendors found increasingly threatened concept of freely distributed software , universal access application s source code. microsoft executive publicly stated in 2001 open source intellectual property destroyer. can t imagine worse software business , intellectual-property business. view summarizes initial response foss software corporations. however, while foss has historically played role outside of mainstream of private software development, companies large microsoft have begun develop official open-source presences on internet. ibm, oracle, google , state farm few of companies serious public stake in today s competitive open-source market. there has been significant shift in corporate philosophy concerning development of free , open-source software (foss).

overview

free , open source software umbrella term software free , open source software. free , open source software provided free of charge, allows user inspect source code, , provides relatively high level of control of software s functions compared proprietary software.

according free software foundation, open source software free software. 2 terms describe same category of software, stand views based on fundamentally different values. thus, open source initiative considers many free software licenses open-source. these include latest versions of fsf s 3 main licenses: gpl, lesser general public license (lgpl), , gnu affero general public license (agpl). thus, terminology of free , open source software intended neutral on these philosophical disagreements.

there number of related terms , abbreviations free , open source software (foss or f/oss) or free/libre , open source software (floss).

free software

richard stallman s free software definition, adopted free software foundation (fsf), defines free software matter of liberty, not price. earliest known publication of definition of free software idea in february 1986 edition of fsf s now-discontinued gnu s bulletin publication. canonical source document in philosophy section of gnu project website. of august 2017, published there in 40 languages.

open source

the open source definition used open source initiative determine whether software license qualifies organization s insignia open-source software. definition based on debian free software guidelines, written , adapted bruce perens. perens did not base writing on 4 freedoms of free software free software foundation, later available on web. perens subsequently stated felt eric raymond s promotion of open source unfairly overshadowed free software foundation s efforts , reaffirmed support free software. in following 2000s spoke open source again.