Free Software and Open Source
The use of software may be viewed similar to the use of other services that offer Protection (Police, Security), Resolution and Prevention of Conflicts (Legal), Health, Education, Transport (Roads and Railroads), etc. There are good reasons for the existence of an infrastructure of software for community use, independent of the market pressures. This infrastructure supports commercial software which satisfy specialized needs within those same fields.

Given the fast and recent development of Computer Science, the communitary software is almost completely driven by the de Free Software movement and the Open Source These movements are supported by individuals making important contributions, and by thousands of volunteers that help to promote, enhance and improve the software, and for commercial enterprises that offer services, resources, etc.

Free Software is the one that once acquired, may be used, copied, analized, modified and redistribuited freely. The free software is often available free of charge in the Internet, or it is offered at cost elsewhere, however Rit may be sold commercially while maintaining its character of Free Software . To be considered free software, is neccesary that the editing and redistribution rights be guaranteed along with the subsequent modifications of the software.

• The freedom of executing the software with any purpose (called "freedom 0")
• The freedom to analize and modify the software ("freedom 1")
• The freedom of copying the software so you can help your neighbor ("freedom 2")
• The freedom to improve the software, and make public your improvements, for the benefit of the community ("freedom 3")

It is important to emphasize that the freedoms 1 and 3 imply free access to source code. These freedoms are present in the license GPL (General Public License).

The oldest and more important organization for the support of Free Software is the Free Software Foundation (FSF), founded in 1984 by Richard Stallman, who also initiated the project GNU that later will serve as a complement to the core written by Linus Torvalds and so to create the Linux operating system.

The software of Open Source differs philosofically from Free Software in that it focus on: (1) Promote the practical benefits that derive of sharing the source code, and (2) Involve the main software houses and others companies of the high technology industry with the concept.  Appeared in 1998 with a group of people, among the ones worth to mention, Eric S. Raymond y Bruce Perens, that founded the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The term open source avoids the ambiguity of the English term free (which it may mean "free" , but also may be "free of charge" free software. The term then "open source" was stamped by Christine Peterson from think tank Foresight Institute, and it was registered to act like a Trademark for the free software products.

In the last years there have been another movements (see Creative Commons, Free Music,