Free Software, Free Society: selected essays of Richard M. Stallman. 2nd edition.

It is safe to say that one can easily infer how to change the program written in the Java programming language in the same way. However, even many programmers would not know where to begin if they wanted to change the binary representation. When we say “source code,” we do not mean machine language that only computers can understand—we are speaking of higher-level languages such as C and Java. A few other popular programming languages are C++, Perl, and Python. Some are harder than others to understand and program in, but they are all much easier to work with compared to the intricate machine language they get turned into after the programs are compiled and assembled.

Another important concept is understanding what an operating system is. An operating system is the software that handles input and output, memory allocation, and task scheduling. Generally one considers common or useful programs such as the Graphical User Interface (GUI) to be a part of the operating system. The GNU/Linux operating system contains a both GNU and non-GNU software, and a kernel called Linux. The kernel handles low-level tasks that applications depend upon such as input/output and task scheduling. The GNU software comprises much of the rest of the operating system, including GCC, a general-purpose compiler for many languages; GNU Emacs, an extensible text editor with many, many features; GNOME, the GNU desktop; GNU libc, a library that all programs other than the kernel must use in order to communicate with the kernel; and Bash, the GNU command interpreter that reads your command lines. Many of these programs were pioneered by Richard Stallman early on in the GNU Project and come with any modern GNU/Linux operating system.

It is important to understand that even if you cannot change the source code for a given program, or directly use all these tools, it is relatively easy to find someone who can. Therefore, by having the source code to a program you are usually given the power to change, fix, customize, and learn about a program— this is a power that you do not have if you are not given the source code. Source code is one of the requirements that makes a piece of software free. The other requirements will be found along with the philosophy and ideas behind them in this collection.

This note was originally published in 2002, in the first edition. This version is part of Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman, 2nd ed. (Boston: GNU Press, 2010).

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire chapter are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

Appendix B: Translations of the Term “Free Software”

The following is a list of recommended unambiguous translations of the term “free software” into various languages:

* Afrikaans: vrye sagteware

* Albanian: software i lirë

* Arabic: برمجيات حرة (barmagiyat ḥorrah)

* Armenian: ազատ ծրագիր/ծրագրեր (azat tsragir/tsragrer)

* Belarusian: свабоднае праграмнае забесьпячэньне (svabodnae pragramnae zabes'pjachen'ne)

* Bulgarian: свободен софтуер (svoboden softuer)

* Catalan: programari lliure

* Chinese(Simplified): 自由软件 (zi-you ruan-jian)

* Chinese(Traditional): 自由軟體 (zih-yo)

* Czech: svobodný software

* Croatian/Serbian: slobodni softver

* Danish: fri software OR frit programmel

* Dutch: vrije software

* Esperanto: libera programaro / programo

* Estonian: vaba tarkvara

* Farsi (= Persian): نرم‌افزارِ آزاد

* Finnish: vapaa ohjelmisto

* French: logiciel libre

* German: freie Software

* Greek: ελεύθερο λογισμικό (eleuthero logismiko)

* Hebrew: תוכנה חופשית (tochna chofshit)

* Hindi: मुक्त सॉफ्टवेयर (mukt software)

* Hungarian: szabad szoftver

* Icelandic: frjáls hugbúnaður

* Ido: libera programaro

* Indonesian: perangkat lunak bebas

* Interlingua: libere programmage / libere programmario

* Irish: bog earraí saoire

* Italian: software libero

* Japanese: 自由ソフトウェア

* Korean: 자유 소프트웨어 (ja-yu software)

* Lithuanian: laisva programinė įranga

* Norwegian: fri programvare

* Malay: perisian bebas

* Malayalam: സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്റ്റ്‌വെയര്‍

* Persian (= Farsi): نرم‌افزارِ آزاد

* Polish: wolne oprogramowanie

* Portuguese: software livre

* Romanian: software liber

* Russian: свободное программное обеспечение (svobodnoe programmnoe obespechenie)

* Sardinian: software liberu

* Serbian/Croatian: слободни софтвер (slobodni softver)

* Slovak: slobodný softvér

* Slovenian: prosto programje

* Spanish: software libre

* Swahili: Programu huru za Kompyuta

* Swedish: fri programvara, fri mjukvara

* Tagalog/Filipino: malayang software

* Tamil: கட்டற்ற மென்பொருள்