hello friends! new(ish)!

GNU General Public License

From InstallGentoo Wiki v2
Revision as of 09:26, 30 December 2014 by >Hurr durr (Hurr durr moved page GNU General Public License on wheels to GNU General Public License over redirect)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
GPL.png

The GNU General Public License (GPL) is one of the most important documents ever written on a computer. It is to Richard Stallman as the Ten Commandments is to Moses. Any software released under this license respects your freedom under strong copyleft, though it is not a guarantee the software itself is any good.

The four essential freedoms

According to gnu.org, a program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:

  • The freedom to run the program, 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.

External links