Free Software Foundation
FSF, organization that promotes freedom of use of software and removal of ownership and property restrictions on the Internet | ||||
Search Dictionary:
Free Software Foundation definition was found in categories: Computer & Internet(1) Language, Idioms & Slang(1) Encyclopedia(1)
Free Software Foundation Definition from Computer & Internet Dictionaries & Glossaries
| FOLDOC |
Free Software Foundation
<body> (FSF) An organisation devoted to the creation and dissemination of free software, i.e. software that is free from licensing fees or restrictions on use. The Foundation's main work is supporting the GNU project, started by Richard Stallman (RMS), partly to proselytise for his position that information is community property and all software source should be shared.
The GNU project has developed the GNU Emacs editor and a C compiler, gcc, replacements for many Unix utilities and many other tools. A complete Unix-like operating system (HURD) is in the works (April 1994).
Software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which also provides a good summary of the Foundation's goals and principles. The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from distributing its software, although it is a charity rather than a company. Although the software is freely available (e.g. by FTP - see below) users are encouraged to support the work of the FSF by paying for their distribution service or by making donations.
One of the slogans of the FSF is "Help stamp out software hoarding!" This remains controversial because authors want to own, assign and sell the results of their labour. However, many hackers who disagree with RMS have nevertheless cooperated to produce large amounts of high-quality software for free redistribution under the Free Software Foundation's imprimatur.
See copyleft, General Public Virus, GNU archive site.
ftp://ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu.
Unofficial WWW pages: PDX, DeLorie.
E-mail: gnu@gnu.org.
Address: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Telephone: +1 (617) 876 3296.
(1995-12-10)
<body> (FSF) An organisation devoted to the creation and dissemination of free software, i.e. software that is free from licensing fees or restrictions on use. The Foundation's main work is supporting the GNU project, started by Richard Stallman (RMS), partly to proselytise for his position that information is community property and all software source should be shared.
The GNU project has developed the GNU Emacs editor and a C compiler, gcc, replacements for many Unix utilities and many other tools. A complete Unix-like operating system (HURD) is in the works (April 1994).
Software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which also provides a good summary of the Foundation's goals and principles. The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from distributing its software, although it is a charity rather than a company. Although the software is freely available (e.g. by FTP - see below) users are encouraged to support the work of the FSF by paying for their distribution service or by making donations.
One of the slogans of the FSF is "Help stamp out software hoarding!" This remains controversial because authors want to own, assign and sell the results of their labour. However, many hackers who disagree with RMS have nevertheless cooperated to produce large amounts of high-quality software for free redistribution under the Free Software Foundation's imprimatur.
See copyleft, General Public Virus, GNU archive site.
ftp://ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu.
Unofficial WWW pages: PDX, DeLorie.
E-mail: gnu@gnu.org.
Address: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Telephone: +1 (617) 876 3296.
(1995-12-10)
Free Software Foundation Definition from Language, Idioms & Slang Dictionaries & Glossaries
| hEnglish - advanced version |
free software foundation
free software foundation
(fsf) an organisation devoted to the creation and dissemination of free software, i.e. software that is free from licensing fees or restrictions on use. the foundation's main work is supporting the gnu project, started by richard stallman (rms), partly to proselytise for his position that information is community property and all software source should be shared.
free software foundation
(fsf) an organisation devoted to the creation and dissemination of free software, i.e. software that is free from licensing fees or restrictions on use. the foundation's main work is supporting the gnu project, started by richard stallman (rms), partly to proselytise for his position that information is community property and all software source should be shared.
Free Software Foundation Definition from Encyclopedia Dictionaries & Glossaries
| Wikipedia English - The Free Encyclopedia |
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded on October 4, 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement ("free" as in "freedom"), and in particular the GNU Project. The FSF is incorporated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States of America.
From its founding until the mid-1990s, FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software. Since the mid-1990s there are more and more companies and individuals writing free software, so FSF's employees and volunteers mostly work on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community.
| See more at Wikipedia.org... |