I found this reading to be quite enlightening as I assumed ‘free software’ merely meant that it didn’t cost anything to obtain. As stated by the Free Software Foundation (2010), one must think of “’free’ as in ‘free speech’, not as in ‘free beer’”. The free in free software basically gives the user the freedom to modify, distribute, use and copy the software as they please. Not only can users do this, but they can also re-sell their modified copies.
Reading this article made me immediately think back to Tim O’Reilly’s (2005) ideas and Adam’s lecture about Web 2.0. Free software, in my mind, could be likened to the thought of Web 2.0 as the read-write-web, where users can contribute/modify. Whereas, the alternative is ‘read-only’, or in regard to software ‘use only and don’t alter anything or redistribute without our permission!!!’.
Does anyone else see this connection? Or am I just slightly crazy?
References
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (2010). The free software definition. Retrieved January 23, 2011, from GNU operating system: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
O'Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0. Retrieved January 22, 2010, from O'Reilly: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
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