Editing Open-source software (section)

=== Free software ===
{{Main|Alternative terms for free software}}
{{See also|Comparison of free and open-source software licenses}}

Under OSI's definition, open source is a broad software license that makes source code available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent restrictions on the use and modification of the code.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |date=2006-07-24 |title=The Open Source Definition (Annotated) |url=https://opensource.org/definition-annotated/ |access-date=2023-12-18 |website=Open Source Initiative |language=en-US}}</ref> It is an explicit feature of open source that it puts very few restrictions on the use or distribution by any organization or user, in order to enable the rapid evolution of the software.<ref name=":17" />

[[Richard Stallman]], leader of the Free software movement and member of the free software foundation opposes the term open source being applied to what they refer to as free software.<ref name=":19" /> Although he agrees that the two terms describe almost the same category of software, Stallman considers equating the terms incorrect and misleading.<ref name=":19" />  He believes that the main difference is that by choosing one term over the other lets others know about what one's goals are: development (open source) or a social stance (free software).<ref name=":20">{{Cite book |last1=Stallman |first1=Richard M. |title=Free software, free society |last2=Gay |first2=Joshua |date=2002 |publisher=Free software foundation |isbn=978-1-882114-98-6 |location=Boston (Mass.)}}</ref> Nevertheless, there is significant overlap between open source software and free software.<ref name=":19" /> Stallman also opposes the professed pragmatism of the [[Open Source Initiative]], as he fears that the free software ideals of freedom and community are threatened by compromising on the FSF's idealistic standards for software freedom.<ref name=":20" /> The FSF considers free software to be a [[subset]] of open-source software, and Richard Stallman explained that [[Digital rights management|DRM]] software, for example, can be developed as open source, despite how it restricts its users, and thus does not qualify as free software.<ref name=":19" />

The FSF said that the term open source fosters an ambiguity of a different kind such that it confuses the mere availability of the source with the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute it.<ref name=":19" /> On the other hand, the term free software was criticized for the ambiguity of the word free, which was seen as discouraging for business adoption, and for the historical ambiguous usage of the term.<ref name=":20" />

Developers have used the [[alternative terms for free software|alternative terms]] ''Free and Open Source Software'' ([[FOSS]]), or ''Free/Libre and Open Source Software'' (FLOSS), consequently, to describe open-source software that is also [[free software]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Brasseur |first=V. M. |title=Forge your future with open source: build your skills, build your network, build the future of technology |date=2018 |publisher=The Pragmatic Bookshelf |isbn=978-1-68050-301-2 |series=The pragmatic programmers |location=Raleigh, North Carolina}}</ref>