Chapter: Ethical Interest in Free and Open Source Software

Quote:

The goal of the project was to establish a software development community dedicated to developing and promoting free software. He established the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to support his plan to create an operating system complete with all of the tools needed to edit, compile, and run software. This effort resulted in a large collection of free software. As part of this work, he codified his notion of free software in theGNU General Public License.

What I expect to learn:

To know more about ethical interest in free and open source software

Review:                    

I found something very interesting about free software and open source software in Wikipedia which I intend to put here as my explanation for this chapter. it is interesting because there is a part of it in the Wikipedia where in free and open source are being criticized as something too different to compare. Here is Open Source vs Free Software as explained in Wikipedia: Critics have said that the term “open source” fosters an ambiguity of a different kind such that it confuses the mere availability of the source with the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute it. Developers have used the alternative terms Free/open source Software (FOSS), or Free/Libre/open source Software (FLOSS), consequently, to describe open source software which is also free software. Open source software and free software are different terms for software which comes with certain rights, or freedoms, for the user. They describe two approaches and philosophies towards free software. Open source and free software (or software libre) both describe software which is free from onerous licensing restrictions. It may be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. Free software is not the same as freeware, software available at zero price. The definition of open source software was written to be almost identical to the free software definition. There are very few cases of software that is free software but is not open source software, and vice versa. The difference in the terms is where they place the emphasis. “Free software” is defined in terms of giving the user freedom. This reflects the goal of the free software movement. “Open source” highlights that the source code is viewable to all and proponents of the term usually emphasize the quality of the software and how this is caused by the development models which are possible and popular among free and open source software projects.

What I learned:

·         ON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN FS AND OSS

·         The History of Free and Open Source Software

·         Free software

·         Open source software

·         Critiques of Free and Open Source Software

·         The Controversy Regarding GPL Version 3

·         The Motivations of OSS Developers

·         Autonomy

·         Economic Foundations for OSS

·         The Quality of OSS

·         The Ethical Responsibilities of Software Developers

·         Open Source and Accountability

Integrative Questions:            

1.    What is a free software?

2.    What is an open source software?

3.    What are the critiques of free and open source software?

4.    What are the motivations of OSS developers?

5.    Explain the concept of open source and accountability.