The terms “Free Software” and “Open Source [3]” are used to characterize the software covered by a license providing freedom to execute, study, redistribute, modify and improve them (see in appendix a more detailed explanation of these elements). The term “Free Software” refers to the definition of the Free Software Foundation, whereas the term “Open Source” refers to the one of the Open Source Initiative. In practice, these two definitions are close. They present however noticeably different points of view.
The Free Software movement is above all ethical and philosophical, based on the sharing of knowledge and mutual aid, whereas the Open Source movement focuses on free software for its practical advantages. Moreover, the term “Open Source” was often used in a wrong way to describe products not meeting OSI's criteria.
The term “Free Software” being more precise and reinforcing the importance of the liberties, it is used by the April.
Links:
- "The Open Source Definition": http://opensource.org/docs/definition.php [4]
- Page “What is Free Software ?” on the website of the FSF: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.fr.html [5]
- Page “Why do we speak of Free Software” on the Web site of the FSF Europe: http://www.fsfeurope.org/documents/whyfs.fr.html [6]
- Page “List of the licenses with comments” by the GNU [7] project: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.fr.html [8]