- Public Domain Software:
- Software that is completely
free of copyright and usually free of charge
- You can do anything you
like with such software – including packaging it up and
selling it (or derivatives)
- Free software: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
- Free in terms of liberty
of use, not price
- For the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program,
for any purpose
- The freedom to study how
the program works, and adapt it to your needs
- The freedom to redistribute
copies so you can help your neighbour
- The freedom to improve the
program, and release your improvements to the public, so that
the whole community benefits
- Open Source: http://www.opensource.org/osd.html
– the main conditions for qualification as OSS are that
- the product must be free
to redistribute
- source code must be available
(not necessarily supplied to all users)
- modifications and derivative
works must be allowed
- Freeware:
- The term "freeware"
has no clear accepted definition, but it is commonly used for
packages which permit redistribution but not modification (and
their source code is not available)
- These packages are not free
software, so please don't use "freeware" to refer to
free software
- Shareware:
- Shareware is software which
comes with permission for people to redistribute copies, but
says that anyone who continues to use a copy is required to pay
a licence fee.