Free Software Movement and its importance
One of the greatest computer movements that has come to highlight is the "free software movement", founded by Richard Stallman, this movement has had from the beginning the objective of giving the importance, recognition and guarantee to the freedom that users possess, users,so that they can make changes, modifications, studies and redistribution.
FSF
The fsf acronym refers to "Free Software Foundation", which means in Spanish "Foundation for Free Software", this foundation is made up of people who have clearly dedicated themselves to generating free software. However, free software terminology means that users are in total freedom to make copies, distributions, modifications or, improvements of certain software, in addition to being able to acquire it, a payment is not needed, that is, it is free.
An interesting fact is that the Free Software Foundation carries out and promotes campaigns in opposition to Microsoft and Apple, since both are private software owners, so, as a user there is restricted access to the source code, so the FSF ishas become an enemy for all those industries that have software with private characteristics.
However, it is important to mention some facts that the FSF has carried out, among which is the support for the development of the GNU project and the licenses corresponding to this. In the same way, the FSF created the free software dictionary that consists of a free software list. The Foundation is also dedicated to free software development projects through the server called Savannah.
GNU/Linux
As mentioned above, the FSF (Foundation for Free Software) has supported what the GNU/Linux project is, which in turn was founded by Richard Stallman. FSF has provided and incorporated tools into this project. Now, in itself, what is GNU/Linux? The acronym GNU refer "GNU is not unix".
The term GNU/Linux describes what we usually call only as Linux, which is an operating system, that is, it is made up of a set of programs with which it is possible to access the hardware, perform the execution of other programs or,The simple fact of interacting with the computer. GNU is usually used with a nucleus which is called Linux, which was mainly developed by Linus Torvalds.
Since the FSF sponsored GNU/Linux, it is expected to be an operating system that has free software, therefore, users are in total willing to execute the program as they want, they are also free to access the source code, studyOn its operation, modify this software, and in the same way users are allowed to make copies to distribute them and thus promote free software.
The GNU/Linux project initially aimed to create an operating system which was free. This project is a UNIX type SO, which means that it is made up of a set of programs that in turn carry out the execution of other programs on a computer, was developed with a multiplatform approach, multi -user, multitasking and multiprocessor. Said operating system can be used through its graphic interface or console.
In GNU/Linux there are distributions, which refer to the combination of certain programs with certain technologies. Currently GNU/Linux has a variety of distributions, of which more distributions are obtained, that is, there are mother distributions and distributions derived from GNU/Linux. For example, Ubuntu is a distribution of GNU/Linux, from which another distribution called as Debian is derived.
GPL
Since it is known what GNU/Linux is, you can mention what GPL is, this term means in English "General Public License", that is, "General Public License", which is belonging to GNU. This license represents the copyright in relation to Open Source and Free Software of GNU, which was created by the FSF (Foundation for Free Software) and by Richard Stallman.
As is well known, the "copyright" in the software is what deprives the user’s freedom, so Richard Stallman sought to protect that freedom through the GPL, so many often call said license as "copyleft",since instead of restricting what it does is allow access to the source code to give it the use you want. The general public license of the GNU project is the free software license with greater recognition, which promotes software freedom.
The creation of the GPL emerged during the development of the GNU project with the purpose of protecting free programs. As previously mentioned, by means of GNU/Linux, the source code can be accessed to make copies, modifications, improvements, among other actions, which can be carried out as long as it is carried out under the terms of the GPL. With GPL it is possible to protect software and also indicate that this is free license.
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman, who is known as the father of free software, nation in 1953 in the city of Manhattan, New York. Part of his history we have seen in the development of the previous concepts, since this man is directly related in regard to free software. Stallman has struggled to establish legal, political and moral terms that support the movement of free software.
Richard Stallman, is a programmer, activist and founder of the free software movement, was also the founder of the GNU and FSF project, as we saw before. In the same way, this man was the creator of both the GPL license and the concept “Copyleft” which describes the technique for a software to have a free use and realization of changes, just as it has supported the creationof software such as the GCC compiler, EMACS, of the GDB treatmentder, among other projects.
According to Stallman, there are certain freedoms that a software must have to be considered free, among which is possible to access the source code of the program for the study and modification of the same, also to be able to make copies of said program to distribute it and thus encourageWhat is free software, among other actions. Richard Stallman has written a variety of essays about free software.
Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds is currently a software engineer, born EM 1969 in Finland, has come to leave a brand in what is free and computer software, and today is considered a computer scientist with great influence in the world. It is interesting that Torvalds began to be interested in the world of computer science from a very young age, because he was 11 when his curiosity began to awaken.
Now, the reason why Linus Torvalds is known is because it was he who created and dealt with the Kernel programming, this term refers to the central nucleus that has an operating system. This nucleus developed it based on the Free Minix operating system, and announced that this was able to carry out the execution of the GCC and Bash compiler, which was of great contribution for the development of free software. Because Torvalds could not pay Unix’s commercial versions, he made the decision to create a version of this based on the Minix Code.
Subsequently of this event, he managed to develop a kernel which was based on UNIX, from there he finally called his creation as Linux, which is a combination between the name of Linus and the name of the UNIX operating system. When Linux obtained its GPL, many companies began to carry out Linux versions, based on the original source code, with certain additional characteristics or improvements, these versions are called "distributions".
Kernel
Previously it had mentioned what a kernel was but it had not been described in depth. The term Kernel translated into Spanish means nucleus, which is a software of utmost importance in a Linux operating system or in any of its distributions. The nucleus is responsible for both hardware and software to work together on a computer, making the system operate and therefore obtain the operation of said computer.
From the aforementioned, it can be considered that the most important part of Linux is the nucleus, since through this it is achieved that a team works correctly. The kernel being the central part of an operating system, it could be established that it is hardware and software intermediator, because the nucleus is in charge of receiving instructions in order to send them to where they correspond so that they can be executed.
Among the functions of the nucleus we find that this admits the fact of accessing any of the computer peripherals, it is also responsible for the administration of memory and the time that the programs take to be executed. The kernel manages the computer programs and also the hardware of this, establishing communication between the two.
Conclusions
- FSF refers to the “Free Software Foundation”, that is, “Foundation for Free Software”, which is a company without luco encourage that promotes the use of free software. This foundation is opposed to the restrictions established by the private software and supports the liberty of the software user. The FSF was founded by Richard Stallman in 1985.
- GNU/Linux is an operating system that arises from the collaboration between Richard Stallman, the FSF and Linus Torvalds, this system is free, multiplatform, multi -user, multiprocessor and multitasking, I feel unix type. The characteristic of this system is that your source code can be accessed with reasons for study, modification, improvements, among other reasons.
- GPL means GNU General Public License, which means, GNU General Public License, this license is responsible for ensuring copyright regarding the programs made up of free software. GPL provides protection to software -free distribution, use and modification. This license was created by Richard Stallman, the founder of the FSF.
- Richard Stallman, is the man considered as the father of the free software movement due to his various contributions caused a transcendental change in the world of operating systems. Not only found the FSF, but also created the GPL, developed computer programs, among other contributions. Stallman was the person who created the GNU project.
- Linus Torvalds, a software engineer, has been one of the people who have provided great contributions to what is free software. Torvalds has been well known because he was the creator of the Linux kernel, for which he based the Minix operating system. Practically Torvalds developed what is the central part of open source operating systems.
- Kernel means in Spanish core, which is considered the most important part of an operating system since it acts as a mediator between software and hardware. Through the kernel it is that you can have access to the various devices that a computer has, without the nucleus it would be impossible to use programs in an appropriate way.
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