Proprietary / Free software and Open Source
Most of software on the market are copyrighted solutions. It means that
their use is restricted by the one who coded it. Examples of those solutions are: Microsoft Windows, Photoshop, Doodle, Skype, Dropbox... so to say you have no idea what the software is really doing, you don't really what use if made of your data, you cannot modify the software in order to do what you would like it to do and you are probably subject to a license fee.
What is a Free software?
A Free software on the
opposite is a software which is run by four freedoms :
- right to execute.
- right to modify.
- right to inspect it.
- right to redistribute it.
Examples of Free software are listed here : Audacity, Mozilla Firefox, BigBlueButton, Inkscape, The GIMP, Libre Office...
Most of Free software do not have license fees.
What is an open source software?
Open Source means that a part of the code is open in order to allow you to see how it is ran. Note that a Free software is open source, though an open source solution may not be a Free software as some freedoms of the open source solution may not be available. That's why you always need to read carefully the terms of the license.
By default, a program released on the web without anything specified about it is a proprietary code.