Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

-Albert Einstein, ‘Out of My Later Years,' 1950

Einstein's quote explains, in very simple terms, why FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) is a good thing. In other words, Einstein simply states the obvious that humans operate best when they are free. It opens up their thoughts and creativity flows freely.

This feature intends to give the reader an insight into the FLOSS world. The first article will delve a little deeper into the workings of the FLOSS Community. An indepth look at the events that led to the current state of affairs is available online. It is certainly an interesting read if you are curious to know how Linux and other FLOSS applications came to be about.

History of FLOSS

The history of FLOSS is quite colorful. While an in depth look at it is beyond the scope of this piece, big names like AT&T, GE & MIT as well as several operating systems like Multics, Unix, GNU & Linux are predominantly the reason why we have FLOSS today. In a nutshell, Multics, an Operating System for PDP-7 computers became extinct. Shattered by the loss of Multics, some people decided to write another called Unics, later called Unix. Then there were some wars by the different people who sold Unix, long story there. Let's just say that a lot of people did their bit to create free stuff and Linus Torvalds wrote a kernel to use it all. Voila! We have Linux. The rest is history.

Definition of Free

We generally accept "Free" as something that comes to us at no cost. But in English, there are two definitions of "Free".

* Free as in Free food, Free beer, Free materials as in "NO COST"

* Free as in Free Speech as in Free to express your opinions or thoughts.

FLOSS refers to the second kind of Free. It does not mean that free software cannot be sold. Some companies do charge you for it, for example Red Hat & Novell charge you for their distribution of Linux.

How is it free?

The closed source or commercial software that is available in the market is only licensed to you. Remember that long "End User License Agreement (EULA)" that you have to "Agree" to before using it? If you read it carefully, you will notice that you can only use the software according to those terms and conditions. You do not own it, you have no rights to change it etc. This is where free software is different. Free software comes under different licenses such as GNU General Public License (GPL), BSD License, Apache License and so on. Almost all of them allow you to freely distribute the source and binaries as long as the license is included in the distribution. It also allows you to charge for the distribution, again keeping the license intact. Some licenses require you to contribute back to the community if you develop something new and use it commercially and so on and so forth.

Does Free make sense?

All of us know somebody who has pirated copies of everything that they need, right from the OS, you know which one, all the way to design software for engineering and web designs. The companies that developed these software have been trying hard to clamp down on the pirates and unlicensed users. Quite a lot of the Small and Medium Enterprises have been getting a friendly reminder about the licensing policies. Of course, you have seen the latest ads in print. If commercial software developers like Microsoft just gave their software free of charge, they would not spend all that money trying to track down illegal users, would they? Ever wonder how much effort is spent writing code that tries to find out if the licensing policies have been adhered to?

Free software makes sense in more ways than one. Consider this:

* You don't have to worry about licensing issues. It is FREE anyways.

* You don't have to keep track of who installed the software on which computer.

* You do not spend money on sending mails to those who you think have infringed on the licensing issues. In the bargain, save a free trees.

* You do not have to keep your code secret, preventing some of the best minds to review the quality.

* You can easily get the best developers for practically nothing.

* Your users will actually love you and your software.

Next issue: Open Source Vs FLOSS. And why many of us think they are one and the same...

Venkat Mangudi is an Open Source Evangelist and Strategy Consultant based in Bangalore. After having worked across Europe, Asia and the US, Venkat returned home to set up a consulting firm called quite unimaginatively, Venkat Mangudi Consulting  www.venkatmangudi.com). He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Issue BG82 Jan 08

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