notes.md

Notes FOSS talk

Definition

Free meaning

• free as in free speech vs. free as in free beer
• often, the term "libre" is used to make this clear
• you can still earn money with free software

open source meaning

• this is what we call code
• this is readable by humans, provided they know the language
• you can kinda see what this does
• this is not readable for a computer

binary

• this is what the computer can execute
• text stuff is still visible
• very hard to reverse-engineer and see how it works

history

early computing

• scientific hacking culture
• software was delivered alongside the machine
• the source code was delivered as well
• the scientists had to adapt software for their needs

proprietary software

• larger software
• started to only ship the binary
• two big events
• lawsuit was dropped --> bundled software is now okay
• patentable software --> software is very young --> 25 years is A LOT

fsf

• four freedoms
• based on moral points
• they are a little dogmatic
• they don't do compromises

osi

• sells open source as a convenience rather than a moral obligation
• they are less harsh on the defintion
• free software is always open source, but not vice versa

foss

• thus, we stick the two words together and call it foss
• people also call it "FLOSS" (libre), but this is kind of a silly word

gpl

• if software is free or open depends on the license
• software has per se a copyright protection
• with a license, you state how your software has to be used
• gpl based on four freedoms of fsf

bsd license

• this is a bit of a full slide, but this is the whole license text
• it basically says:
  • you can do with the software whatever you want
  • if this software is used for evil, the writer is not at fault

copyleft

• the main difference between the two is the copyleft (a joke from copyright)
• modified gpl source code has to be redistributed under gpl as well
• example: linux, many forked linux and added their own stuff, and linux could just take this code

performance

• linus' law
• it was discovered that it doesn't scale well with large numbers of people, but the principle still holds
• even if you are not a coder, someone else is
• if malicious stuff is found, one can fork the code and remove that

signal vs. whatsapp

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