Portal:Free and open-source software
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Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that is distributed in a manner that allows its users to run the software for any purpose, to redistribute copies of it, and to examine, study, and modify, the source code. FOSS is also a loosely associated movement of multiple organizations, foundations, communities and individuals who share basic philosophical perspectives and collaborate practically, but might diverge in detail questions.
The historical precursor to this was the hobbyist and academic public domain software ecosystem of the 1960s to 1980s. The FOSS movement's "free" part originates from Richard Matthew Stallman, who noted the lost freedom to users on the decline of the public domain ecosystem and the growth of a copyrighted proprietary software ecosystem. In response, as a hack of the copyright system, he created the GPL, a protective copyleft license, aiming for the creation of a complete and free operating system — GNU. Shortly after, the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD) brought an alternative FOSS approach to the table: the more public domain–like permissive licenses. Other noteworthy FOSS organizations from this time include the Apache Foundation (Apache Server), GNOME, Debian, Mozilla Foundation (Firefox), with their own ideas: The Free Software Definition, Debian Free Software Guidelines, The Open Source Definition, and more. At the end of the 1990s, in the context of the dot-com bubble and web 2.0, the Open-Source movement (with Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Tim O'Reilly and others) gave important impulses to FOSS with the achieved open sourcing of Netscape's browser as Firefox and Sun Microsystems' office suite, OpenOffice.org. The incorporation of Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel in FOSS OS paved the way to broad mainstream recognition and acceptance of FOSS in the IT domain and among the general public. In the 2010s GitHub's openness and collaboration encouraging software repository cloud service brought FOSS software development & maintenance methodologies to mainstream software development.
The FOSS movement inspired the creation of other movements, such as open access, open hardware, open content, free culture, open standards, and many more.
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, with the main contributor and commercial marketer being Google.
Initially developed by Android Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007, with the first commercial Android device launched in September 2008. The current stable version is Android 10, released on September 3, 2019. The core Android source code is known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is primarily licensed under the Apache License. This has allowed variants of Android to be developed on a range of other electronics, such as game consoles, digital cameras, PCs and others, each with a specialized user interface. Some well known derivatives include Android TV for televisions and Wear OS for wearables, both developed by Google.
Android's source code has been used as the basis of different ecosystems, most notably that of Google which is associated with a suite of proprietary software called Google Mobile Services (GMS), that frequently comes pre-installed on said devices. This includes core apps such as Gmail, the digital distribution platform Google Play and associated Google Play Services development platform, and usually apps such as the Google Chrome web browser. These apps are licensed by manufacturers of Android devices certified under standards imposed by Google. Other competing Android ecosystems include Amazon.com's Fire OS, or LineageOS. Software distribution is generally offered through proprietary application stores like Google Play Store or Samsung Galaxy Store, or open source platforms like Aptoide or F-Droid, which use software packages in the APK format. Read more...
Although there was free software before, in 1983 Richard Stallman launched the free software movement and founded the Free Software Foundation to promote the movement and to publish its own definition of free software. Others published alternative definitions of free software, including the Debian Free Software Guidelines and the Berkeley Software Distribution-based operating system communities.
In 1998, Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond began a campaign to market open-source software and founded the Open Source Initiative, which espoused different goals and a different philosophy from Stallman's.
The following operating systems are released under free software licenses:
- Android
- Arch Linux
- BLAG Linux and GNU
- CentOS
- Debian
- DragonflyBSD
- Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre
- dyne:bolic
- elementary OS
- Fedora
- FreeBSD
- gNewSense
- Guix System Distribution
- Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre
- LibreCMC
- LineageOS
- Linux Mint
- Manjaro Linux
- Musix GNU+Linux
- NetBSD
- OpenBSD
- openSUSE
- Parabola GNU/Linux-libre
- PureOS
- ReactOS
- Replicant
- Trisquel
- Ubuntu
- Ututo
- Impediments and challenges
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act · Digital rights management · Tivoization · Software patents and free software · Trusted Computing · Proprietary software · SCO-Linux controversies · Binary blobs
- Adoption issues
- OpenDocument format · Vendor lock-in · GLX · Free standards · Free software adoption cases
- About licences
- Free software licences · Copyleft · List of FSF-approved software licenses
- Common licences
- GNU General Public License · GNU Lesser General Public License · GNU Affero General Public License · IBM Public License · Mozilla Public License · Permissive free software licences
- History of...
- ...free software · Free software movement
- Groupings of software
- Comparison of free software for audio · List of open-source video games
- Naming issues
- GNU/Linux naming controversy · Alternative terms for free software · Naming conflict between Debian and Mozilla
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