<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 1.96 -->
<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html -->
<!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays aboutfs free-open" -->
<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" -->
<title>FLOSS and FOSS - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/floss-and-foss.translist" -->
<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" -->
<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE-->
<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" -->
<div class="article reduced-width">
<h2>FLOSS and FOSS</h2>

<p>by <strong>Richard Stallman</strong></p>

<address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address>

<p>The two political camps in the free software community are the free
software movement and open source.  The free software movement is a
campaign
for <a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">
computer users' freedom</a>; we say that a nonfree program is an
injustice to its users.  The open source camp declines to see the
issue as a matter of justice to the users, and bases its arguments on
<a href="/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html"> practical
benefits only</a>.</p>

<p>To emphasize that “free software” refers to freedom and
not to price, we sometimes write or say “free/libre “free (libre)
software,” adding the French or Spanish word that means free in
the sense of freedom.  In some contexts, it works to use just
“libre software.”</p>

<p>A researcher studying practices and methods used by developers in
the free software community decided that these questions were
independent of the developers' political views, so he used the term
“FLOSS,” meaning “Free/Libre and Open Source
Software,” to explicitly avoid a preference between the two
political camps.  If you wish to be neutral, this is a good way to do
it, since this makes the names of the two camps equally prominent.</p>

<p>Others use the term “FOSS,” which stands for
“Free and Open Source Software.” This is meant to mean the
same thing as “FLOSS,” but it is less clear, since it
fails to explain that “free” refers to <em>freedom</em>.
It also makes “free software” less visible than
“open source,” since it presents “open source”
prominently but splits “free software” apart.</p>

<p>“Free and Open Source Software” is misleading in
another way: it suggests that “free and open source” names
a single point of view, rather than mentioning two different ones.
This conceptualization of the field is an obstacle to understanding
the fact that free software and open source are different political
positions that disagree fundamentally.</p>

<p>Thus, if you want to be neutral between free software and open
source, and clear about them, the way to achieve that is to say
“FLOSS,” not “FOSS.”</p>

<p>We in the free software movement don't use either of these terms,
because we don't want to be neutral on the political question.  We
stand for freedom, and we show it every time—by saying
“free” and “libre”.</p> “libre”—or “free
(libre).”</p>
</div>

</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
<div id="footer"> id="footer" role="contentinfo">
<div class="unprintable">

<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>.
There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
the FSF.  Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p>

<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
        replace it with the translation of these two:

        We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
        translations.  However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
        Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
        to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org">
        <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p>

        <p>For information on coordinating and submitting contributing translations of
        our web pages, see <a
        href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
        README</a>. -->

Please see the <a
href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting contributing translations
of this article.</p>
</div>

<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
     files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
     be under CC BY-ND 4.0.  Please do NOT change or remove this
     without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
     Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
     document.  For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
     document was modified, or published.
     
     If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
     Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
     years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
     year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
     being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
     
     There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
     Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->

<p>Copyright © 2013 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021 Richard Stallman</p>

<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>

<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->

<p class="unprintable">Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
$Date: 2021/09/11 10:06:04 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
</body>
</html>