On the Value Orientation of Free Software

In July 23, 2007, I wrote a short article entitled "World Software Freedom Day", which has been around for the past seven years and has undergone great changes.

Now, we often mention the Socialist "Core Values" (24-character principles). The word "freedom" represents a value orientation (positive energy) at the social level ), "Freedom" is no longer a politically sensitive word. We should stay away from it.

What is free software? What is the value orientation of free software? We say that free software allows modification of its program source code (so it must be open-source software, not necessarily domestic software ), in addition, the source code is modified for whatever reason (so it is autonomous and controllable software ). From the social perspective, isn't "Free Software" a social value orientation (software positive energy )? Can software be used only to make money?

September 20 this year was also the world Software Freedom Day (SFD ). This is a day to publicize and popularize free software, and a day to give full play to the positive energy of free software. We should put down the "Political and Ideological burdens" and embrace free software!

Remember, in August 28, 2004, this was the world's first "Software Freedom Day" (SFD ). On this day, we specially organized a "picnic" in Fuzhou Forest Park to let everyone talk about the future of free software. On July 6, September 2005, I contacted an organization in Hangzhou to organize the second "Software Freedom Day" event in China. However, unfortunately, "freedom" is a politically sensitive term, the event was canceled by the lead at the last minute.

It should be said that the value (positive energy) of software lies in the use. The more users there are, the more value the software can exert. Therefore, developing free software is the only way to exert the positive energy of software!

I sincerely hope that, based on the 24-word core value, we can restore the "reputation" of free software to replace the ambiguous term "Open Source Software" and return to its original face.

On the Value Orientation of Free Software