Open Source Systems

Open and Closed Source Systems

Option 1, GNU

Daniel Edick

POS/355

2/17/14

Alicia Pearlman

The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) is a free software license developed by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project. The initial announcement of the GNU project was made by Stallman in September 1983. According to "Overview Of The Gnu System" (2013), “The name “GNU” was chosen because it met a few requirements; first, it was a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix”, second, because it was a real word, and third, it was fun to say”.

Stallman wrote the GNU GPL for use with programs released as part of the GNU project and Version 1 of the GNU GPL was released on February 25, 1989. The creation of this project was Stallman's response to the increasing trend of software developers publishing software that did not have readable source code and was not modifiable by anyone other than the developer. Stallman felt that software should be free, not in a monetary sense, but the freedom to share and have access to the source code. According to "Gnu General Public License, Version 1" (1989), “The license agreements of most software companies try to keep users at the mercy of those companies. By contrast, our General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. The General Public License applies to the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. You can use it for your programs, too. When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Specifically, the General Public License is designed to make sure that you have the freedom to give away or sell copies of free software, that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things” (Preamble).

Version two of the GNU GPL was...