Free Software Foundation (FSF)

According to January 2020, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organization whose task is to serve the cause of freedom of computer users and protect the rights of all users of free programs at the global level.

History

2020: FSF urged Microsoft to open Windows 7 source code

On January 27, 2020, it became known that the software Free Software Foundation (FSF) called for Microsoft opening. source code OS Windows 7 On his website, he posted a petition, inviting everyone who would like to receive updates to this system in the future and not switch to sign Windows 10 it. More. here

2019: Richard Stallman's resignation as president of the ACT Foundation

In September 2019, Richard Stallman resigned as president of the Free Software Foundation, simultaneously ending his career at MIT. He made this decision against the backdrop of harassment caused by his statements regarding sex with minors.

"I resign from my position at MIT without delay and leave the ACT Fund due to pressure on me amid misunderstandings and incorrect characteristics"[1], noted' Richard Stallman '

1990s

From its founding until the mid-1990s, the Fund was used primarily to hire developers to write free programs. Since the mid-late 1990s, free software has been created by many companies and private individuals, so Foundation employees and volunteers work mainly on legal and organizational issues in the field of free software.

1988: Creation of the GNU GPL Open License Agreement

The GNU General Public License is a free software license created as part of the GNU project in 1988, under which the author transfers the software to public ownership.

Most software licenses deny you the right to distribute and modify this software. The GPL General Public License, on the contrary, is designed to guarantee you the right to share and make changes to free software, that is, to provide free access to the software for all users.

The terms of the GPL General Public License apply to most of the Free Software Foundation software, as well as to any other software at the request of its author. (Some Free Software Foundation software is subject to the terms of the GNU General Public License for Libraries.) You can also apply the General Public GPL to the software you have developed.

Speaking of free software, we mean freedom, not free software. The GPL General Public License is designed to guarantee you the right to distribute copies of free software (and if you wish to receive a reward for this), the right to receive the source text of the software or be able to receive it, the right to make changes to the software or use parts of it in new free software, as well as the right to know that you have all of the above rights.

To protect your rights, we impose a number of restrictions so that no one can deprive you of these rights or ask you to waive these rights. These restrictions impose certain obligations on you if you distribute copies of the software or modify the software.

For example, if you distribute copies of such software for a fee or free of charge, you must transfer to the new owners all rights to the same extent as they belong to you. You must ensure that new program owners receive its source text or have the opportunity to receive it. You are also required to familiarize them with the terms of the GPL General Public License.

To protect your rights, we: (1) reserve exclusive copyrights to the Software and (2) invite you to use this License under the terms of which you may reproduce, distribute and/or modify the Software.

1985: Foundation by Richard Stallman

The foundation was founded in 1985, Richard Stallman which was a guest lecturer at the Laboratory computer science and. artificial intelligence Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stallman also laid the foundations/. operating system GNULinux

In the most general sense, the social basis for the emergence and spread of the ideology of free software (ACT) was two trends observed among the technical intelligentsia in the West: the rejection of consumption practices imposed by corporations and the strengthening of a volunteer approach to labor and its results.

By the time of the advent of the computer industry, Western markets for consumer goods and services were already highly developed, and global corporations operating on them were applying well-developed mechanisms for the production and promotion of goods, including patent restrictions, massive advertising campaigns, cartel-type lobbying and partnerships, thus killing narrow market segments and actually limiting the consumer's ability to individualize choices. As PCs spread, these practices were naturally transferred by corporations to the field of IT products and services. However, the IT market quickly discovered a fundamental difference from the market for consumer goods or even durable goods, due to the specifics of the underlying information product.

With the rapid growth of the IT market, information products and services have covered almost all aspects of human life, including learning, communication, expression, and development opportunities. Under such conditions, the use of stringent market mechanisms, attempts to impose methods of handling information on the user, and the restriction of the already small (compared to traditional market segments) choice of products and services in the IT market inevitably began to be associated in the intelligentsia with a restriction of personal freedom. The reaction to the rigid commercialization of information technologies was, in particular, the founding of the Free Software Foundation, the ideology of which became widespread due to the attractiveness of the idea itself and the charismatic qualities of Richard Stallman.

Around the same time, volunteer ideology began to spread in the developed countries of the West: middle-class representatives, already sufficiently wealthy to not perceive their work solely as a means of extracting essential bread, began to devote part of their time to free work and participation in public or professional projects. By the beginning of the XXI century, in the mentality of the already rather vast segments of the population of economically developed Western countries, the chain "labor - its practical results - remuneration" has lost its strong ties. Along with the monetary reward of efforts, personal priorities for a person become the public significance and benefits of his work, wide recognition of the results of his work, the possibility of development through participation in interesting projects, etc. In many ways, it was the volunteer worldview that served as the motivation for the participation of programmers in international projects for the development of the ACT and the basis for the free exchange of intellectual products, including code, finished programs and content.

At the intersection of these two social trends and their implementation in the IT industry, projects for the development of freely distributed software arose and quickly began to develop.

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