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Software Freedom

This page serves to give information on what Free Software is and why it matters. Some other good sources of this information are the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU Project.

Table of Contents

What is Free Software?

Free Software (or libre software) is software that respects the users' freedom. It is not a matter of price; Free Software does not have to be free in cost, and software is not Free Software by being free in cost. More specifically, it allows you to run, study, change, and distribute the software however you wish. This is essential to ensure that you, the user, have the power and freedom that you deserve over the programs and files on your computer, and that the developer(s) of the programs on your computer do(es) not have disproportionate power over your computer. It is also essential to ensure your safety; see Dangers of proprietary software on this page.

Below are the four essential Freedoms of Free Software.

NOT having these freedoms is problematic, because without them:

Using Free Software is essential to ensure that you have the liberty and control over your computer, its programs, and its files, that you, as a computer user, deserve. Unfortunately, a large amount of software today is proprietary, meaning that it restricts these freedoms from you. This includes popular programs such as Microsoft Windows and Google Chrome. Instead of these programs, you should consider using Free Software such as GNU/Linux and IceCat.

For more information on what Free Software is, I recommend seeing the GNU Project's Free Software Definition.

Disadvantages of proprietary software

Not only does proprietary software carry ethical problems, but it also comes with practical disadvantages.

Proprietary software's primary disadvantage is that only the developer(s) have the rights to change or see the source code. If software is free (as in freedom, requiring it to share its source code under an applicable license), then anybody in the world can read the code, and suggest modifications to it to improve it. Proprietary software, which conceals its source code to the best of the developer(s)' abilities, does not have this advantage; the only people in the world who can make changes and improve the software are the developers.

Of course, this is not the only practical disadvantage of proprietary software. There are significantly more, but that is so many that I cannot cover them all here!

Dangers of proprietary software

Running proprietary software always comes with risk. Since you cannot possibly know (without highly technical things such as reverse-engineering) what the program does nor how it works, you cannot verify that it does not have fatal security flaws, or even outright malware. Releasing proprietary software is how malware developers prevent you from knowing that their software is malicious. There are, of course, non-dangerous proprietary software, but one can never trust such software.

Conversely, Free Software does not have such a danger**. Since software being Free Software requires the source code to be available, anybody can audit it for security flaws, and it is significantly harder for it to hide malicious intent.
**Software being Free Software does not necessarily guarantee it is safe; moreso, it guarantees that its safety can be inspected.

Proprietary software developers often use the power that they gain over you from not disclosing how their program works to add dangerous things into it, such as data harvesting or malware.

This sounds like a distant danger that you can avoid by being careful of what you install, but this would be wrong. If you use “Big Tech” programs such as Microsoft Windows, you are probably running malicious software**!
**Software does not have to be a virus to be malicious. Microsoft Windows is malicious software because it collects data on you that you may not want it to.

Free Software, as opposed to proprietary software, does not carry this danger. Since anybody in the world can see how the program works, you can inspect everything that the program does, and whether it does what it claims to. Using Free Software is essential if you want to ensure your digital safety.

I'm sold. Where do I begin?

To start using Free Software to get the freedom that you deserve and to ensure your digital safety and privacy, you can see the FSF's Free Software Directory (FSD) and/or its page on replacements for proprietary software.