Free/Libre/Open-Source Software
Free/Libre/Open-Source Software (FLOSS) is a term used to broadly refer to free and open source software. The philosophy behind this software movement is likely to interest people who participate in co-operative groups, because it concerns both the practical benefits and the ethics of sharing and collaborating.
There are two main ideological viewpoints within the FLOSS movement. These are led from one side by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and from the other by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Both groups argue that the internal workings of software should be opened up, allowing many people (and not just the original creators or copyright holders) to make improvements and modifications, and to share them. This has many practical benefits, such as:
- The frequency of improvements and corrections to the software is accelerated by the larger number of contributors
- The users are empowered to fully customise the software to their own needs
- If the software 'proprietors' are not providing a good service, then the users are not tied down. Other branches of development can open up.
- Through the increased openness there is a spread of knowledge, as other people are able to examine and learn from the software design.
- Since the internal workings of the software are open to public scrutiny, the developers have the incentive to provide higher quality work.
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While the OSI argue their point from an economic perspective, targeting commercial organisations, the FSF see it as an ethical concern. They believe that it is ethically wrong to deprive people of the right to share and modify software, and that this form of obstruction has serious social repercussions (see [1]). This is why many people enthuse about open source software not just as a superior practical solution, but also as an important matter of principle.
