What is FOSS?

Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software[a] where 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.[3] 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.

Benefits of FOSS over proprietary software.

FOSS benefits over proprietary software Users of FOSS benefit from the Four Essential Freedoms to make unrestricted use of, and to study, copy, modify, and redistribute such software with or without modification. If they would like to change the functionality of software they can bring about changes to the code and, if they wish, distribute such modified versions of the software or often − depending on the software's decision making model and its other users − even push or request such changes to be made via updates to the original software.

History of its development.

In the 1950s and 1960s, computer operating software and compilers were delivered as a part of hardware purchases without separate fees. At the time, source code, the human-readable form of software, was generally distributed with the software providing the ability to fix bugs or add new functions. Universities were early adopters of computing technology. Many of the modifications developed by universities were openly shared, in keeping with the academic principles of sharing knowledge, and organizations sprung up to facilitate sharing. As large-scale operating systems matured, fewer organizations allowed modifications to the operating software, and eventually such operating systems were closed to modification. However, utilities and other added-function applications are still shared and new organizations have been formed to promote the sharing of software.

Free software before the 1980s

In the 1950s and into the 1960s almost all software was produced by academics and corporate researchers working in collaboration, often shared as public-domain software. As such, it was generally distributed under the principles of openness and cooperation long established in the fields of academia, and was not seen as a commodity in itself. Such communal behavior later became a central element of the so-called hacking culture (a term with a positive connotation among open-source programmers). At this time, source code, the human-readable form of software, was generally distributed with the software machine code because users frequently modified the software themselves, because it would not run on different hardware or OS without modification, and also to fix bugs or add new functions. The first example of free and open-source software is believed to be the A-2 system, developed at the UNIVAC division of Remington Rand in 1953, which was released to customers with its source code. They were invited to send their improvements back to UNIVAC. Later, almost all IBM mainframe software was also distributed with source code included. User groups such as that of the IBM 701, called SHARE, and that of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), called DECUS, were formed to facilitate the exchange of software. The SHARE Operating System, originally developed by General Motors, was distributed by SHARE for the IBM 709 and 7090 computers. Some university computer labs even had a policy requiring that all programs installed on the computer had to come with published source-code files. In 1969 the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), a transcontinental, high-speed computer network was constructed. The network (later succeeded by the Internet) simplified the exchange of software code.

The FOSS movement dates back to almost the very beginning of the computer industry, although it was not then formally defined or conceptualized. It was only in the late 1970s and early 1980s that the sharing of software began to really come in conflict with proprietary software. One of the earlier references to proprietary software was made by William H. Gates III in his now-famous “An Open Letter to Hobbyists.[8] In this letter, dated 3 February 1976, he rails against the prevailing culture of software sharing:

Proprietary software would gain momentum over the years. At the pioneering MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in the early 1980s, a company called Symbolics was formed and took what was freely available code (the LISP programming language) and made it proprietary. In the process, it wiped out the software-sharing culture of the MIT lab at the time. This destruction, however, would eventually result in the creation of the FSF and the FOSS culture today.

RICHARD STALLMAN:one of the MIT lab members at the time, was appalled at the turn of events. It would shape his view of proprietary software and instill in him the resolve to create a free operating system. The GNU (recursive acronym for GNU is Not Unix) project was born in January 1984 and over the next decade, it created a variety of critical tools that formed a portion of the operating system. The FSF was created a year later to promote Free Software and the GNU project. However, up until 1991, the GNU project had yet to produce a totally free software system due to a missing critical piece: the kernel.

The kernel is the heart of the operating system. In 1991, Linus Torvalds, who at the time was a second year graduate student at the University of Helsinki, wrote and distributed a Unix-like kernel. In the manner of FOSS development, it was distributed widely, improved upon and soon adapted to become the core of the GNU/Linux operating system.

There were other FOSS projects in progress at the time, including BIND, Perl and the BSD operating systems. All of these projects eventually ended up merging or cross-pollinating.

The GNU/Linux operating system would continue to grow steadily in features and capabilities. In 1997 Linux exploded into the press limelight, with International Data Corp (IDC) noting that GNU/Linux already owned 25 percent of the server market and was growing at an annual compound growth rate of 25 percent.

In 1998, in response to Netscape’s release of its Netscape Navigator code as FOSS, a group of FOSS developers came together and the label “Open Source” was created. This led to the formation of the Open Source Initiative and the Open Source Definition. The primary purpose of this initiative was to get the corporate world to pay attention to the FOSS development process and steer a path away from the “confrontational” attitude of the Free Software movement.

In 1999, the massively successful IPO of GNU/Linux distributor Red Hat gave it a market capitalization of US$4.8 billion. Other successful IPOs that year were VA Linux (US$7 billion), Cobalt Networks ($3.1 billion) and Andover.net ($712 million).As the poster child of FOSS, GNU/Linux's success meant that FOSS had truly arrived.

Some of the FOSS alternatives to common applications

• Audacity.
• Amarok.
• BRL-CAD.
• Gimp.
• Inkscape.
• Dia.
• OpenOffice.
• LibreOffice.

Its ties with GNU/Linux

In 1983, Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, set forth plans of a complete Unix-like operating system, called GNU, composed entirely of free software. In September of that year, Stallman published a manifesto in Dr. Dobb's Journal detailing his new project publicly, outlining his vision of free software. Software development work began in January 1984. By 1991, the GNU mid-level portions of the operating system were almost complete, and the upper level could be supplied by the X Window System, but the lower level (kernel, device drivers, system-level utilities and daemons) was still mostly lacking. The kernel officially developed by GNU was called GNU Hurd. The Hurd followed an ambitious microkernel design, which proved unexpectedly difficult to implement early on. However, in 1991, Linus Torvalds independently released the first version of the Linux kernel. Early Linux developers ported GNU code, including the GNU C Compiler, to run on Linux, while the free software community adopted the use of the Linux kernel as the missing kernel for the GNU operating system. This work filled the remaining gaps in providing a completely free operating system. Over the next few years, several suggestions arose for naming operating systems using the Linux kernel and GNU components. In 1992, the Yggdrasil Linux distribution adopted the name "Linux/GNU/X". In Usenet and mailing-list discussions, one can find usages of "GNU/Linux" as early as 1992, and of "GNU+Linux" as early as 1993. The Debian project, which was at one time sponsored by the Free Software Foundation, switched to calling its product "Debian GNU/Linux" in early 1994. This change followed a request by Richard Stallman (who initially proposed "LiGNUx," but suggested "GNU/Linux" instead after hearing complaints about the awkwardness of the former term).[18] GNU's June 1994 Bulletin described "Linux" as a "free Unix system for 386 machines" (with "many of the utilities and libraries" from GNU), but the January 1995 Bulletin switched to the term "GNU/Linux" instead. Stallman's and the FSF's efforts to include "GNU" in the name started around 1994,but were reportedly mostly via private communications (such as the above-mentioned request to Debian) until 1996. In May 1996, Stallman released Emacs 19.31 with the Autoconf system target "linux" changed to "lignux" (shortly thereafter changed to "linux-gnu" in emacs 19.32), and included an essay "Linux and the GNU system" suggesting that people use the terms "Linux-based GNU system" (or "GNU/Linux system" or "Lignux" for short). He later used "GNU/Linux" exclusively, and the essay was superseded by Stallman's 1997 essay, "Linux and the GNU project".