The Free Software movement is a movement for ethically aware software development that was founded in 1983 by Richard Stallman. With Free Software there is a philosophy of a ethically better way of creating knowledge to the benefit of all (human) beings, which distinguishes it from Open Source, that is more about the technically different approach to software development.

Richard and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), that was founded in order to foster the users rights in the area of software and knowledge in general, defined Free Software as a piece of software whose license grants everyone the right to execute a program for every purpose, to analyze the software and to modify and redistribute it.

Over the years this movement has created a rich pool of software, that provides with free alternatives to proprietary software for virtually every need.
Among its creations are world-famous things like the Linux operating system or the Firefox webbrowser and even the worlds largest and probably best encyclopedia Wikipedia is built in that spirit.

Fast Facts:

1. Movement founded in 1983 by Richard Stallman