Mediaboss Marketing

Also see Confusing Words which You Might Want to Avoid.

This diagram, originally by Chao-Kuei and updated by several others since, explains the different categories of software. It's available as a Scalable Vector Graphic and as an XFig document, under the terms of any of the GNU GPL v2 or later, the GNU FDL v1.2 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike v2.0 or later.

Free software is software that comes with permission for anyone to use, copy, and/or distribute, either verbatim or with modifications, either gratis or for a fee. In particular, this means that source code must be available. If it's not source, it's not software. This is a simplified description; see also the full definition.

If a program is free, then it can potentially be included in a free operating system such as GNU, or free versions of the GNU/Linux system.

There are many different ways to make a program freemany questions of detail, which could be decided in more than one way and still make the program free. Some of the possible variations are described below. For information on specific free software licenses, see the license list page.

Free software is a matter of freedom, not price. But proprietary software companies typically use the term free software to refer to price. Sometimes they mean that you can obtain a binary copy at no charge; sometimes they mean that a copy is bundled with a computer that you are buying, and the price includes both. Either way, it has nothing to do with what we mean by free software in the GNU project.

Because of this potential confusion, when a software company says its product is free software, always check the actual distribution terms to see whether users really have all the freedoms that free software implies. Sometimes it really is free software; sometimes it isn't.

Many languages have two separate words for free as in freedom and free as in zero price. For example, French has libre and gratuit. Not so English; there is a word gratis that refers unambiguously to price, but no common adjective that refers unambiguously to freedom. So if you are speaking another language, we suggest you translate free into your language to make it clearer. See our list of translations of the term free software into various other languages.

Free software is often more reliable than nonfree software.

Go here to see the original:
Categories of Free and Nonfree Software - GNU Project - Free ...