Love

Welcome to Episode 1 of the Open Source Utopia Podcast. It is a common perception that open source software …… is free in the meaning “without cost”. That can be true, but “free” has a different and much more important meaning in open source. That meaning is free as in “freedom”. Using free software is radically different …… from buying yourself a personal license. You have freedoms you don't get with other types of software. For that reason we often call it …… Free and Open Source Software, abbreviated FOSS. FOSS has three core fredoms. You can use it for any purpose. You can look at the code and change it. And you can redistribute it with or without changes. You might still have to pay to download it. Think of that as the cost of making the software available. There is no single-user license to buy. Once you have it, you can use it, change it …… and give it away to others. In that sense open source software is provided …… without expecting anything in return. Payment isn't a required part of the transaction. You can compare that to having a friend …… help you drive some rubbish to the dump. Maybe you cover the cost of petrol …… but you wouldn't pay your friend by the hour. Helping each other is what friends do. This kind of selfless love …… is what you also find in open source. In the next episode, I'll talk about how …… this love relationship changes the role of the producer.

“The Magic Spell”