A Concise Introduction to Free and Open Source Software
If you have at least a passing acquaintance with information technology (IT), you will likely recognize the phrase “open source software” (OSS). If you’re familiarity with IT is more detailed, you will also have heard the phrase “free and open source software” (FOSS), and perhaps the somewhat puzzling word combination, “free, libre open source software” (FLOSS). Unless you have made an effort to dig deeper into what lies behind these acronyms, however, you may be at a loss to give a coherent definition of any of these phrases, much less a differentiated explanation of each.
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