Free and Open Source Software

Free and Open Source Software, also F/OSS or FOSS, is software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. F/OSS is generally synonymous with free software and open source software, and describes the same licenses, culture, and development models.

Examples

Some examples of FOSS include: the Linux kernel, the KDE and GNOME desktops, BIND and Firefox.

Licenses

The most well known and popular F/OSS licenses include: GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), BSD license, Apache License, MIT License and Mozilla Public License.

There are a number of endorsed F/OSS definitions, and related lists of licenses. The above licenses are approved by all definitions.

F/OSS definitions and guidelines:

Open Source Definition, from the Open Source Initiative
Free software definition, from the Free Software Foundation
Debian Free Software Guidelines

Lists of licenses:

Culture

The F/OSS culture and F/OSS community stem from hacker culture.

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Examples

Licenses

Culture

See also