Outline Of Free Software

Short description: Overview of and topical guide to free software

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to free software and the free software movement:

Free software – software which can be run, studied, examined, modified, and redistributed freely (without any cost). This type of software, which was given its name in 1983, has also come to be known as "open-source software", "software libre", "FOSS", and "FLOSS". The term "Free" refers to it being unfettered, rather than being free of charge.

Large free software projects

GNU Project
Linux
Berkeley Software Distribution

Free software by type

Free and open-source software packages (by type)

Comparison of free off-line GPS software
Comparison of free software for audio
Free statistical software
Free television software
Free web application software

Free software products

List of free software project directories
List of formerly proprietary software
List of Linux distributions
- List of Ubuntu-based distributions
List of open source software packages
- Comparison of open source wireless drivers
- List of open source statistical packages
- List of trademarked open source software
List of free and open-source Android applications
List of free and open-source software packages
List of free software web applications

Operating system families

Comparison of open-source operating systems
AROS
BSD
Darwin
eCos
FreeDOS
GNU
Haiku
Inferno
Linux
Mach
MINIX
OpenSolaris
Plan 9
ReactOS

Open-source software development products

Main page: Software:Open-source software development

Basic For Qt
Eclipse
F#
Free Pascal
FreeBASIC
Gambas
GCC
Java
LLVM
Lua
NetBeans
Open64
Perl
PHP
Python
ROSE
Ruby
Tcl
TypeScript

Free software movement

Main page: Free software movement

Alternative terms for free software
Debian Social Contract
Free-software licence
Gratis versus Libre
Open source
- Open-source definition
- Open-source software
- Open-source-software movement
- Comparison of open source and closed source
- Comparison of open-source software hosting facilities
Open standard
Long-term support
Software Package Data Exchange

Challenges

Proprietary software
Proprietary device driver ("binary blobs")
Free and open-source graphics device driver
Proprietary firmware
Secure boot
Digital rights management
License proliferation
Software patents and free software
SCO–Linux controversies
Mozilla software rebranded by Debian
Open-source software security
Trusted Computing

Free software licenses

Main page: Free software license

Specific licenses

Apache
Artistic
Beerware
Boost Software License
BSD licenses
CC0
GNU General Public License
GNU Lesser General Public License
ISC license
MIT License
Mozilla Public License
Ms-PL/RL
WTFPL
zlib License

License types and standards

Comparison of free and open-source software licenses
Contributor License Agreement
Copyleft
Debian Free Software Guidelines
Definition of Free Cultural Works
Free license
The Free Software Definition
The Open Source Definition
Open-source license
Permissive free software licence
Public domain
Viral license

History of the free software movement

Free Software Foundation
SCO-Linux controversies
Open Source Initiative
History of GNU
History of Haiku
History of Linux
History of the Linux kernel
Mozilla
- History of Mozilla Application Suite
- History of Firefox
- History of Mozilla Thunderbird
Timeline of free and open-source software

Events

List of free-software events

Organizations

Main page: Organization:List of free and open-source software organizations

.NET Foundation
Android Open Source Project
Apache Software Foundation
Blender Foundation
The Document Foundation
Eclipse Foundation
F Sharp Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
- Free Software Foundation Europe
- Free Software Foundation of India
- Free Software Foundation Latin America
FreeBSD Foundation
freedesktop.org
Free Software Movement of India
GNOME Foundation
GNU Project
Google Code
KDE e.V.
Linux Foundation
Mozilla Foundation
Open Knowledge Foundation
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
Open Source Initiative
Outercurve Foundation
Software Freedom Conservancy
SourceForge
Symbian Foundation
X.Org Foundation
Xiph.Org Foundation
XMPP Standards Foundation

Persons influential in the free software movement

Well known scholars

Lawrence Lessig
John Gilmore
Eben Moglen
Eric S. Raymond

Other leading personalities

Rick Adams
Eric Allman
Brian Behlendorf
Keith Bostic
Alan Cox
Miguel de Icaza
Theo de Raadt
Jim Gettys
Jon Hall
Jordan Hubbard
Lynne Jolitz
William Jolitz
Rasmus Lerdorf
Marshall Kirk McKusick
Bram Moolenaar
Ian Murdock
Tim O'Reilly
Keith Packard
Brian Paul
Bruce Perens
Bob Scheifler
Mark Shuttleworth
Richard Stallman
Linus Torvalds
Andrew Tridgell
Guido van Rossum
Larry Wall

External links

The Free Software Definition
Transcripts about Free Software by FSFE
Free Software Magazine, which bills itself as "a free magazine for the free software world."
Free cultural works definition
FLOSSWorld - Free/Libre/Open-Source Software: Worldwide impact study, to find out more about the recently announced European Union funded study.
Software Freedom: An Introduction, by Robert J. Chassell