NiXijav's Blog

Support Free Software - written by NiXijav on 2015-09-24

Why is free software important? Because our freedom matters.

'Free software' means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, 'free software' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech', not as in 'free beer'. We sometimes call it 'libre software' to show we do not mean it is gratis. (Source)

Why is Free Software important? Because our freedom matters. Because we should have the right to learn and share what we learn with others. Currently, many people use propietary software that denies users these freedoms and benefits. With propietary software, if we give a copy to a friend, if we try to figure out how the program works, or even if we put a copy on more than one of our own computers in our own home, we could be caught and fined or put in jail. This won't happen with Free Software.

A program can be considered Free Software if the program's users have this four essential freedoms:

1. The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
2. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
3. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
4. The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

So, what are you waiting for? Don't let them steal your freedom. Go ahead and make a move. Change starts with you, and now, it is necessary. We are in the time of cloud computing and proprietary SaaSS, and these companies are taking over people's freedom.

And remember, it's not a matter of price. It's a matter of liberty.