Overview on Open Source or Free Software and Licensed Software

Free and Open Source Software

Free and open-source software (F/OSS, FOSS) or free/libre/open-source software (FLOSS) is software that is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. This approach has gained both momentum and acceptance as the potential benefits have been increasingly recognized by both individuals and corporations.

In the context of free and open-source software, free refers to the freedom to copy and re-use the software, rather than to the price of the software. The Free Software Foundation, an organization that advocates the free software model, suggests that, to understand the concept, one should "think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer".

Free and open-source software is an inclusive term which covers both free software and open source software which, despite describing similar development models, have differing cultures and philosophies.  Free software focuses on the philosophical freedoms it gives to users while open source focuses on the perceived strengths of its peer-to-peer development model. FOSS is a term that can be used without particular bias towards either political approach.

Free software licences and open source licenses are used by many software packages. While the licenses themselves are in most cases the same, the two terms grew out of different philosophies and are often used to signify different distribution methodologies.  

Licensed Software or Propriety Software

The hallmark of proprietary software licenses is that the software publisher grants the use of one or more copies of software under the end-user license agreement (EULA), but ownership of those copies remains with the software publisher (hence use of the term "proprietary"). This feature of proprietary software licenses means that certain rights regarding the software are reserved by the software publisher. Therefore, it is typical of EULAs to include terms which define the uses of the software, such the number of installations allowed or the terms of distribution.

The most significant effect of this form of licensing is that, if ownership of the software remains with the software publisher, then the end-user must accept the software license. In other words, without acceptance of the license, the end-user may not use the software at all. One example of such a proprietary software license is the license for Microsoft Windows. As is usually the case with proprietary software licenses, this license contains an extensive list of activities which are restricted, such as: reverse engineering, simultaneous use of the software by multiple users, and publication of benchmarks or performance tests.

Difference between Free and Open Source Software and Licensed Software

Open source is a set of principles and practices on how to write software. Literally "open source" means the source code is available to the users. The Open Source Definition, which was created by Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond and is currently maintained by the Open Source Initiative, adds additional meaning to the term. One should not only get the source code but also have the right to use it. If the latter is denied the license is categorized as a shared source license.

While a software license agreement is a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software which grants the user a software license. Most often, a software license agreement indicates the terms under which an end-user may utilize the licensed software, in which case the agreement is called an end-user license agreement or EULA. When the software license agreement is between the software licensor and a business or government entity, it is often implemented as a specialized form of contract with many clauses unique to the license and the nature of the software being licensed.

Examples of Free and Open Source Software

Opera browser

Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta 1

Avira Antivir Personal – Free

Panda USB Vacinne 1.0.1.4

Icy Tower 1.4

Examples of Licensed Software

Avira Antivir Security Suite

Microsoft Office Enterprise 2010

Adobe Photoshop CS4

Warcraft III – Frozen Trone

NBA Live 2K11

Examples of Free and open source OS

Darwin

Darwin is the UNIX technology-based foundation of Mac OS X. Darwin integrates several technologies. Among the most important are 4.4BSD-based operating-system services (built on the Mach 3.0 microkernel), the I/O Kit, networking facilities, and support for multiple integrated file systems. Developers can use Darwin to port UNIX/Linux applications and create kernel extensions.

React OS

ReactOS is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows® XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows® architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture.

OpenSolaris

OpenSolaris is an operating system (OS), an open source project licensed under CDDL, and a community. The project’s goals are innovation, collaboration, and the extension of OpenSolaris technology.OpenSolaris is free, open source, and well-suited for desktops, laptops, servers, and data centers. The quality requirement of OpenSolaris is perhaps best stated as Production Ready All The Time.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you’ll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.

Mandriva

Mandriva Linux is a community-based Linux distribution, suitable for a wide range of situations from typical desktop use through development and server roles up to clustering.

Mandriva Linux is based on the Cooker development project sponsored by Mandriva. Hundreds of passionate free software developers work openly on the core of the distribution. This open, community-driven development system has been in place since 1998, making it one of the longest-standing open source development communities around. The involvement of the Mandriva development community helps us to make Mandriva Linux one of the largest, most up-to-date, integrated, internationalized and standardized distributions available.

Examples of Licensed OS

·         Windows Vista Ultimate

·         Mac OS X

·         Windows 7 Home Premium

·         Windows XP

·         Windows Me