Copyleft

Copyleft is the practice of granting the right to freely distribute and modify intellectual property with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works created from that property.Copyleft in the form of licenses can be used to maintain copyright conditions for works ranging from computer software, to documents, art, scientific discoveries and even certain patents.

Free Software

Free software (or libre software) is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions.

Free Software the software must provide:

  • The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
  • The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Freeware

Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines freeware unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the freeware it offers.

Nonfree Software

Software which fails to meet the definition of free software. It will fail to meet the standard of one or more of the four freedoms listed in the definition of free software.

Shareware

Shareware is a type of proprietary software which is initially provided free of charge to users, who are allowed and encouraged to make and share copies of the program.

Open Source Software

Open-source software (OSS) is a type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration.

Gnu General Public Licence

The GNU General Public License is a series of widely-used free software licenses that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software. The licenses were originally written by Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), for the GNU Project, and grant the recipients of a computer program the rights of the FreSoftware Definition.

GNU

GNU is an extensive collection of free software, which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems.

FOSS and F/O

The first known use of the phrase free open-source software (in short FOSS or seldom F/OSS) on Usenet was in a posting on March 18, 1998, just a month after the term open source itself was coined.

Software Libre

While probably used earlier (as early as the 1990s) "Software libre" got broader public reception when in 2000 the European Commission adopted it. The word "libre", borrowed from the Spanish and French languages, means having liberty.

Reverse Engineering

The process of analyzing an existing piece of nonfree technology to ascertain how it was designed or how it operates. The data collected can then be used in creating free software.

Free Software Foundation (FSF)

A nonprofit organization with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users.

Treacherous Computing

Computers that disallow users from making certain changes in the system. Enforcing this behavior is achieved by loading the hardware with a unique encryption key inaccessible to the rest of the system.

Palladium and the TCPA

TCPA stands for the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA), an initiative led by Intel. Their stated goal is a new computing platform for the next century that will provide for improved trust in the PC platform. palladium appears to be a Microsoft version which will be rolled out in future versions of Windows, will build on TCPA hardware, and will add some extra features.

Some of the most popular licenses:

GNU licences are the strongest copyleft license, conditioned on making available complete source code of licensed works and modifications, which include larger works using a licensed work, under the same license. Copyright and license notices must be preserved

Mozilla Public License 2.0. Permissions of this weak copyleft license are conditioned on making available source code of licensed files and modifications of those files under the same license

Apache License 2.0 A permissive license whose main conditions require preservation of copyright and license notices.

MIT License. A short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices

Boost Software License 1.0. permissive license

Linux Terminal

Below, you will find a complete linux terminal where you can test out various commands.
Dont be afraid to experiment, as all of the changes are temporary!