Richard Stallman: The Guru of the Free Software Philosophy

Richard Stallman defines free software as a matter of liberty, not price. His philosophy centers on user autonomy and user rights rather than on whether software costs money.

For more information about Stallman's definition of free software, see this search for Stallman's definition of FOSS.

The Four Essential Freedoms

According to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Stallman's definition, a program is free software if its users have these four core freedoms:

• Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
• Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does what you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
• Freedom 3: The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others, giving the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes.

Free Software vs. Open Source

• Free Software (Libre): Stallman and the free software movement view non-free software as a social injustice because it strips users of control. The word “free” means “free as in free speech, not as in free beer”.
• Open Source: The open-source camp shares practical and technical methods for code sharing, but focuses primarily on practical development benefits rather than moral or ethical rights.

Further Information about Richard Stallman

You can find a huge portion of information about Richard Stallman at the following links:

• Richard Stallman's personal website
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Richard Stallman
• Internet Hall of Fame: Richard Stallman