
Free Software - gnomax
https://www.fsf.org/
======
sieste
Imagine every scientist started to acknowledge in their papers all the free
software tools they used for their research. In my field it has become more
common to cite R packages in papers, but we could go further and give a shout
out to the whole FOSS community who provide the infrastructure for computing.
Much research would simply not be possible without people dedicating their
careers and free time to developing free software.

~~~
glandium
Starting with TeX?

~~~
new_realist
TeX is not under an free software license.

~~~
glandium
_Donald Knuth has indicated several times that the source code of TeX has been
placed into the "public domain", and he strongly encourages modifications or
experimentations with this source code._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX#License](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX#License)

------
throwaway590007
Always have a moment's pause to think of all the infrastructure, money and
quality of life propped up by the unpaid work of obscure volunteers who answer
to no one but their own good will. It's funny and in a way humbling how so
many things in the world are run like that.

------
new_realist
Note, GPL licensing is in decline (see
[https://resources.whitesourcesoftware.com/blog-
whitesource/t...](https://resources.whitesourcesoftware.com/blog-
whitesource/top-open-source-licenses-trends-and-predictions)) and has dropped
to third of open source licenses in market share. If this continues expect the
dominant tools of the future to be under more permissive licenses, as they
were in the distant past; remember, permissive open source licensing predates
the FSF.

