Free and open-source software

Free and open-source operating systems such as Linux and descendants of BSD are widely utilized today, powering millions of servers, desktops, smartphones (e.g. Android), and other devices.

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds.

That is, anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.

Software using such a license is free software (or free and open-source software) as conferred by the copyright holder.

Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software.

However, while Free and open-source software has historically played a role outside of the mainstream of private software development, companies as large as Microsoft have begun to develop official open-source presences on the Internet.

The Linux kernel, created by Linus Torvalds, was released as freely modifiable source code in 1991. For instance the Linux kernel, the BusyBox project, AdvFS, Blender, and the VLC media player decided against adopting the GPLv3.

The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, Unix-like operating system kernel.

Software, including source code, was commonly shared by individuals who used computers, often as public domain software.

This kind of freely distributed and shared "free software" combined the nowadays differentiated software classes of freeware, shareware and free and open-source software and was created in academia, and by hobbyists and hackers.

FreeBSD and NetBSD (both derived from 386BSD) were released as Free software when the USL v. BSDi lawsuit was settled out of court in 1993.

FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix.

FreeBSD and NetBSD (both derived from 386BSD) were released as Free software when the USL v. BSDi lawsuit was settled out of court in 1993.

NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).

The free-software movement and the open-source software movement are online social movements behind widespread production and adoption of FOSS.

Both the free-software movement and the open-source movement share this view of free exchange of programming code, and this is often why both of the movements are sometimes referenced in literature as part of the FOSS or "Free and Open Software" or FLOSS "Free/Libre Open-Source" communities.

OpenBSD forked from NetBSD in 1995.

OpenBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution.

Also in 1995, The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache, was released under the Apache License 1.0.

The Apache HTTP Server, colloquially called Apache, is free and open-source cross-platform web server software, released under the terms of Apache License 2.0.

However, with version 0.12 in February 1992, he relicensed the project under the GNU General Public License.

While in the free and open-source domain achieving 100% coverage of all authors is often impossible due to the many contributors involved, often it is assumed that a great majority is sufficient.

This code is today better known as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.

Mozilla Firefox, Firefox Browser, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, Mozilla Corporation.

This code is today better known as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source, cross-platform email client, news client, RSS, and chat client developed by the Mozilla Foundation.

OpenBSD forked from NetBSD in 1995.

Free and open-source software is that which, by definition, may be forked from the original development team without prior permission, without violating copyright law.

Ubuntu is a free and open-source Linux distribution based on Debian.

Debian, also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993.

This is often due to manufacturers obstructing FOSS such as by not disclosing the interfaces or other specifications needed for members of the FOSS movement to write drivers for their hardware − for instance as they wish customers to run only their own proprietary software or as they might benefit from partnerships.

But in recent years, non-vendors have written numerous proprietary device drivers, mainly for use with free and open source operating systems.

Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software.

Drupal is a free and open-source content management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License.

However the success of FOSS Operating Systems such as Linux, BSD and the companies based on FOSS such as Red Hat, has changed the software industry's attitude and there has been a dramatic shift in the corporate philosophy concerning the development of Free and Open-source software (FOSS).

Red Hat sponsors the Fedora Project, a community-supported free software project that aims to promote the rapid progress of free and open-source software and content.

For instance the Linux kernel, the BusyBox project, AdvFS, Blender, and the VLC media player decided against adopting the GPLv3.

Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, and computer games.

However, with version 0.12 in February 1992, he relicensed the project under the GNU General Public License.

Historically, the GPL license family has been one of the most popular software licenses in the free and open-source software domain.

This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.

Sometimes another vendor or a software's community themselves can provide support for the software, or the users can migrate to either competing systems with longer support life cycles or to FOSS-based systems.

The definition was based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens.

Perens poses "Open Source" as a means of marketing the free and open-source software idea to business people and mainstream who might be more interested in the practical benefits of an open source development model and ecosystem than abstract ethics.

Sun Microsystems (Sun) acquired MySQL AB, owner of the popular open-source MySQL database, in 2008.

MySQL is free and open-source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, and is also available under a variety of proprietary licenses.