"Anyone who hears this, if can sing, may add and change at pleasure. Let it go from hand to hand: let those who request it have it. As a ball among young women, catch it if you can.
Since this is of 'Good Love', lend it out gladly: do not make a mockery of its name by keeping it in reserve; nor exchange it for money by selling or renting it; for 'Good Love' when bought, loses its charm."
Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita. The Book of Good Love (14th century, original in Ancient Spanish)
This is a new, revised and updated edition of Introduction to Free Software. The contents of the previous editions are included, updated and completed with new materials.
Still work in progress...
The first version of these notes was written by Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona, Joaquín Seoane Pascual and Gregorio Robles between April and September 2003. Although we had been discussing for a while preparing a document of this type for the Free Software course that Joaquín and Jesús teach as part of the PhD programs of their respective departments, it was the initiative of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) that commissioned us to prepare material to introduce the free software masters course, which finally encouraged us to get started. The involvement of Jordi Mas, the academic coordinator of the masters course, in this task was crucial, in that he proposed us for the job and put us in contact with the UOC, additionally supporting our relations with the UOC throughout the project's duration.
Shortly after handing in the first edition, the authors started retouching the material as part of an ongoing process, although with varying degrees of activity, until this second edition was completed in May 2007. During this time, the first edition was extensively used in the free software masters of the UOC and in various other postgraduate courses in Spain and America. The experience with the UOC has been followed with particular interest by Gregorio Robles, who has participated in it, and has therefore obtained feedback that has proven extremely valuable for improving the content. The three of us (Joaquín, Jesús, and since 2006, Gregorio) have also continued with the postgraduate software course at the UPM (Polytechnic University of Madrid) and at the URJC (Rey Juan Carlos University), taking advantage of it in order to test the material.
Once again, the UOC has been the catalyser of this second edition, charging us with a commission that we have taken too long to complete. The work of Jordi Mas and David Megías (of the UOC) has been fundamental, and has provided vital critical support for pushing forward this new edition. The work of José Ignacio Fernández Villamor and Boni García Gutiérrez, pupils of Joaquín Seoane, who have collaborated in reviewing the materials for this second edition, has also been essential.
Some of the texts in these notes are based on previous material, usually belonging to the authors themselves, and in some cases to third parties (used with permission when not completely redrafted). Among them, we would mention the following (at the risk of omitting anyone important):
- There are some fragments (especially on the chapters of history and the economy) inspired by the document "Free Software / Open Source: Information Society Opportunities for Europe?" [132], which Jesus Gonzalez-Barahona co-edited for the European Commission. However, the fragments in question have been extended, retouched and updated to such an extent that in many cases they may be difficult to recognise.
- The section on monopolies and free software (section 5.4) has been based on the paper "Software libre, monopolios y otras yerbas" ("Free software, monopolies and other herbes") [84], by Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona.
- The sections on legislative initiatives and public administration initiatives in relation to free software are partly based on "Iniciativas de las administraciones públicas en relación al Software Libre" ("Initiatives of public administrations related to free software") [103] (thanks to Pedro de las Heras for allowing us to use this material, which he co-authored).
- Part of the section on motives for using free software in the public administrations (Section 6.2) is based on the paper [85], by Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona.
- The chapter on free software engineering is an adaptation of the paper on the state of the art of software engineering applied to free software by Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona and Gregorio Robles for the magazines Novática (Spanish version) and Upgrade (English version).
- In the chapter on case studies, the part regarding the development of Linux is based on a presentation made by Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche during the postgraduate course "Free Programs" of the Polytechnic University of Madrid during academic year 2002-03.
- The historical part of the detailed study of GNOME has been taken from the historical introduction included in the book on "Applications development in GNOME2" prepared by GNOME Hispano and written by one of the authors of this book.
- The FreeBSD case study is partly based on the presentation given by Jesús Rodríguez at the III HispaLinux Conference held in Madrid in the year 2000.
- The Debian and Red Hat case studies are based on the previous work of González Barahona et al. who have reflected the results of the quantitative analysis of these two distributions in various papers.
- Various materials, especially updates and new material in the chapter on case studies, were prepared by José Ignacio Fernández Villamor and Boni García Gutiérrez towards the beginning of 2007 on a specific branch for modifications made in the context of that year's edition of the postgraduate subject of Joaquín Seoane at the UPM. A large proportion of those materials were included in time for the second edition.