free software

English

Noun

free software (uncountable)

1. (software) Software that can be freely copied, redistributed and modified, including source code; software that is libre.

   Synonyms: libre software, (rare) freedomware, (rare) libreware

   Near-synonym: open-source software

   Antonyms: proprietary software, non-free software

   • 1999, Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman, Mark Stone, editors, Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution, O'Reilly Media, page 173:

     [Richard Stallman's] work inspired many others to contribute free software under the GPL.

   • 2010, Jason van Gumster, Robert Shimonski, GIMP Bible, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 4:

     Simply put, Free Software is software that you can use, modify, and share with virtually no restrictions. Although it's often distributed free of charge—occasionally referred to as “free as in beer”—Free Software is not to be confused with “freeware.”

2. (software) Any software that is free of charge, such as freeware.

   Synonym: freeware

   • 1984, Alfred Glossbrenner, How to Get Free Software […] , St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page xvi:

     At the very least, good free software can reduce the total cost of entering the microworld. But it may also enable you to equip your system with more memory, more power, and more peripherals than you could afford if you had to sink hundreds of dollars into commercial programs.

Translations

software that can be freely copied and modified

• Arabic: بَرْمَجِيَّات حُرَّة f pl (barmajiyyāt ḥurra)
• Catalan: programari lliure m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自由軟件 / 自由软件 (zìyóu ruǎnjiàn) (Chinese mainland), 自由軟體 / 自由软体 (zìyóu ruǎntǐ) (Taiwan)

• Dutch: vrije software f
• Esperanto: libera programaro
• Finnish: vapaa ohjelmisto
• French: logiciel libre (fr) m
• Georgian: თავისუფალი პროგრამა (tavisupali ṗrograma), თავისუფალი პროგრამული უზრუნველყოფა (tavisupali ṗrogramuli uzrunvelq̇opa), თავისუფალი სოფტი (tavisupali sopṭi)
• German: freie Software f
• Greek: ελεύθερο λογισμικό (el) n (eléfthero logismikó)
• Hungarian: szabad szoftver (hu)
• Italian: software libero (it) m
• Japanese: フリーソフトウェア (furī sofutowea), 自由ソフトウェア (jiyū sofutowea)
• Korean: 자유 소프트웨어 (jayu sopeuteuweeo)
• Latvian: brīva programmatūra
• Lithuanian: laisva programinė įranga f
• Macedonian: слободен софтвер (sloboden softver)
• Malay: perisian bebas
• Malayalam: സ്വതന്ത്രസോഫ്റ്റ്‌വെയര് (svatantrasōphṟṟ‌veyaṟ)
• Norwegian: fri programvare
• Persian: نرم‌افزار آزاد (fa)
• Polish: wolne oprogramowanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: software livre m
• Romanian: software liber n
• Russian: свобо́дное програ́ммное обеспече́ние n (svobódnoje prográmmnoje obespečénije), свобо́дный софт m (svobódnyj soft), СПО (ru) n (SPO), свободные программы (svobodnyje programmy)
• Sardinian: software liberu
• Scottish Gaelic: bathar-bog saor
• Serbo-Croatian: slobodni softver m
• Sinhalese: නිදහස් මෘදුකාංග (nidahas mr̥dukāṁga)
• Slovak: slobodný softvér
• Slovene: svobodna programska oprema f, prosto programje
• Spanish: software libre m
• Swedish: fri programvara n
• Tamil: கட்டறு மென்பொருள் (kaṭṭaṟu meṉporuḷ)
• Turkish: hür yazılım, özgür yazılım

free software — see freeware

See also

• open content
• open source

This article was originally based on material from FOLDOC, used with permission. Update as needed.