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The free software community is also called the open source community or the Linux community. These terms refers to the collective users and developers of free software. Users of free software, more so than proprietary software, form a community because of the ability of all users to participate in the development and distribution of free software. The free software community includes individuals, groups, and companies who use free software because they believe that the freedoms to help yourself and to collaborate with others should be fundamental human rights, and it includes those who see free software as a way to make money.
History When the free software movement began in 1983, the community of users was mostly academics and computer programmers. In the late 1990s, as free software became easier to use, many companies became users, distributors, and developers of free software. Communication structure Most communication is done over the Internet via mailing lists and forums, and some is done at conferences. This can also be seen in the widespread use of the collaborative software development model. Well known websites which the free software community participate in are Slashdot, LWN, and Newsforge, although these are not exclusively used by the free software community. Conferences include GUADEC, aKademy, FOSDEM, FISL, LinuxTag, and LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. Recognisable characteristics Some values which are nearly universal - as universal as values can be in a community of millions - are the preference for public discussion of technical matters, and opposition to software patents and parts of the DMCA. Disagreements There are many contests within the community. Some of these are ageing "religious wars", such as the technical disputes from the 80s and early 90s over which text editor is superior, Emacs or Vim, or what version of a text editor is superior, GNU Emacs vs Xemacs. Others exist over naming (see Open source vs. free software, and GNU/Linux naming controversy). Companies entering the community With the success of free software such as GNU/Linux, Apache HTTP Server, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org, many companies have begun interacting with the free software community. Some have found it difficult and have been surprised by the communities luke warm or critical response to their efforts. Difficulties include the choice of free software licences, and the selection of what software will be released as free software. An example of a relatively successful entry to the free software community is Sun Microsystem's release of Star Office under the GNU General Public License. This was warmly received by the community since the free software community did not have a mature office suite at the time, so this was a welcome contribution. Using the community's preferred licence was also welcome because this allowed source code to be shared with other projects. An example of a more difficult entry to the free software community is that of Real Networks. Real Networks wrote their own licence, and released only parts of their software suite. Most notably, the codec - the software needed to view Real Video files, was not released. See also | ||||||||
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