FOSS Network Infrastructure and Security/Introduction to FOSS and GNU/Linux

 FOSS Network Infrastructure and Security 

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Foreword — List of Abbreviations — Introduction to FOSS and GNU/Linux — Network Concepts and Architectures — Major Networking Functions with FOSS — Security Functions with FOSS — Network Planning — Further References — Glossary — About the Author — Acknowledgements — About APDIP — About IOSN

Free/Open Source Software

Free/Open Source Software, or FOSS, is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to study, change and improve its design since its source code is made available. The definition of free software, as enunciated by the Free Software Foundation, states that four essential freedoms should be contained within its license:

1. The freedom to run the program for any purpose;

2. The freedom to study and modify the program;

3. The freedom to copy the program so you can help your neighbour, and

4. The freedom to improve the program and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Freedoms 2 and 4 require access to the source because studying and modifying software without source code is extremely difficult and highly inefficient since humans cannot usually understand machine code or object code. The Open Source definition published by the Open Source Initiative states that:

1. The license should not prohibit free redistribution;

2. The program must include source code and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form;

3. The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software;

4. The integrity of the author’s source code and reputation must be maintained by requiring derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software;

5. The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons;

6. The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavour;

7. The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed, without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties;

8. The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program being part of a particular software distribution;

9. The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software; and

10. No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

Some examples of FOSS software include: the Linux kernel, GNOME Desktop and Free Berkeley Software Distribution (FreeBSD). The most well known and popular FOSS licenses include: GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), BSD license, Apache License, MIT License and Mozilla Public License. For more information on FOSS, please refer to FOSS: A General Introduction by Kenneth Wong and Phet Sayo.