From the course: Linux: Overview and Installation

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Open-source software

Open-source software - Linux Tutorial

From the course: Linux: Overview and Installation

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Open-source software

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- [Narrator] The story of open source starts with Richard Stallman who was working at MIT and discovered a bug in a printer driver they were using. He told the manufacturer of the printer that if he could get the source code, he'd fix the driver for free. The manufacturer refused his offer. Richard decided at that moment that software should be free. Free as in freedom, not as in beer. What he means by this is that access to the software source code should be granted allowing people to help each other. It should be free in the sense of freely available. Companies can charge for the software, however, and still allow open access to the source code. So free as in freedom, not as in cost. Richard Stallman is the originator of open source. He believes in freedom and has spent a lifetime fighting against software licenses that restrict freedom. He calls this the free software movement and does not use the term open source,…

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