Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software

Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software, 9780262062466 (0262062461), MIT Press, 2005

Briefly stated, the terms “free software” and “open source software” refer
to software products distributed under terms that allow users to:

Use the software
Modify the software
Redistribute the software

in any manner they see fit, without requiring that they pay the author(s)
of the software a royalty or fee for engaging in the listed activities. In
general, such terms of distribution also protect what the publishing world
calls the “moral right” of the software’s author(s) to be identified as such.
Products such as the GNU/Linux operating system, the Apache Web server,
the Mozilla Web browser, the PHP programming language, and the
OpenOffice productivity suite are all well-known examples of this kind of
software.

More detailed, formal definitions for the terms free and open source are
maintained—and vigilantly watch-dogged—by the Free Software Foundation
(FSF)1 and Open Source Initiative (OSI).2 However, the definitions are
substantively identical, and the decision to use one of these terms rather
than the other is generally ideological, rather than functional; the FSF
prefers the use of a term that explicitly refers to freedom, while the OSI
believes that the dual meaning of the English word “free” (gratis or libertas)
is confusing, and instead prefers the emphasis on the availability and
modifiability of source code.3 In Europe the French-English construct libre
software has been widely adopted to unambiguously capture the connotation
intended by the FSF.

Comments

Amazing Books

Defending the Digital Frontier: A Security Agenda

John Wiley & Sons, 2002

Praise for Defending the Digital Frontier

"The charge of securing corporate America falls upon its business leaders. This book, offered by Ernst & Young and written by Mark Doll, Sajay Rai, and Jose Granado, is not only timely, but comprehensive in outlook and broad in scope. It addresses many of the critical security...

Beyond Software Architecture: Creating and Sustaining Winning Solutions

Addison Wesley, 2003

Over the years, I've seen many projects that have failed, or struggled, to cross the bridge between new product invention and creating a winning solution. This book provides a practical set of guidelines-it's a useful, and usable, book."-Dan'l Lewin,Corporate Vice President of Microsoft .NET Business Development

...

Expert VB 2008 Business Objects

Apress, 2009

I have a passion for frameworks. In more than 20 years as a professional developer, I’ve never worked on a computing platform that did everything I needed it to do to build applications productively. The Microsoft .NET platform is wonderful, but it doesn’t always do quite what I want or need. To address those needs, I’m always...

Variable-length Codes for Data Compression

Springer, 2007

Most data compression methods that are based on variable-length codes employ the Huffman or Golomb codes. However, there are a large number of less-known codes that have useful properties - such as those containing certain bit patterns, or those that are robust - and these can be useful. This book brings this large set of codes to the attention of...

Groups and Symmetries: From Finite Groups to Lie Groups (Universitext)

Springer, 2009

The theory of group representations is a fundamental subject at the intersection of algebra, geometry and analysis, with innumerable applications in other domains of pure mathematics and in the physical sciences: chemistry, molecular biology and physics, in particular crystallography, classical and quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.

...

The Revelation of the Name YHWH to Moses: Perspectives from Judaism, the Pagan Graeco-Roman World, and Early Christianity (Themes in Biblical Narrative)

Brill Academic Publishers, 2006

The revelation of YHWH's name to Moses is a momentous event according to the Old Testament. The name `Yahweh' is of central importance in Judaism, and `Yahwism' became tantamount to Jewish monotheism. As such, this designation of God also attracted the attention of pagan writers in the Graeco-Roman period. And early Christians had to deal...