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A better definition of free software
'''Free software''', also known as freeware, is software which is given out without requiring exchange for money.
'''Free software''' is software that is made available under a licence that gives the user greater rights than is typical for proprietory software. The Free Software Foundation lists four essential freedoms needed to meet its definition of free software:[http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html]
[[Category:Information technology]]
* The freedom to run the program for any purpose
* The freedom to study how the software works and modify it to meet your needs
* The freedom to distribute copies of the software
* The freedom to publish modifications to the software
In order to fulfil these requirements access to the [[source code]] is essential, so free software is a type of [[open source]] software. The freedom to distribute the software may be subject to a clause that ensures that future recipients of the software have the same freedoms.
Examples of free software are the [[GNU/Linux|Linux]] operating system and the [[Apache (software)|Apache]] web server.
==Free Software and Freeware==
Free Software is not the same as [[freeware]]. Free software can be sold for a fee, and freeware may not grant the user the freedoms necessary to qualify as free software. In order to avoid confusion between the two meaning of ''free'' some people describe free software as "free (libre) software".