If you are a developer, you may have heard of the term “FOSS” or “Free and Open Source Software”. FOSS is a software that is free to use, modify, and distribute. There are many FOSS licenses, and each license has its own characteristics. In this article, I will introduce some of the most popular FOSS licenses.

GNU General Public License (GPL)

GNU General Public License (GPL) is a FOSS license created by Richard Stallman. It is called “copyleft” because it requires that the source code of the software be distributed under the same license. In other words, if you use GPL software in your project, you must distribute your project under the GPL license.

There are various versions of the GPL, but the most popular version is GPL v3.

Software using GPL are:

  • Linux
  • GCC
  • WordPress
  • Etc.

GPL v3

  • More compatible with other licenses than GPL
  • Prohibits the use of GPL software in freedom or privacy-restricting DRM
  • Patent protection

LGPL

  • Easily compatible with non-GPL software
  • Mainly used for libraries

MIT License

MIT License is a FOSS license created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is a permissive license that allows you to use, modify, and distribute the software without any restrictions.

Software using MIT License are:

  • jQuery

  • Node.js- GIMP

  • React

  • Ruby on Rails

  • Etc.

Apache License

Apache License is a FOSS license created by the Apache Software Foundation. It is in the middle of GPL and MIT License.

It is not copyleft since it does not require the source code to be distributed under the same license. However, it requires that the original work must still be published under the Apache License and modifications must be documented.

Software using Apache License are:

  • Android
  • Apache HTTP Server
  • Kubernetes

BSD License

BSD License is a FOSS license created by the University of California, Berkeley. It is a similar license to MIT License, but it has a clause that prohibits the use of the name of the original author for advertising purposes.

Conclusion

In this article, I introduced some of the most popular FOSS licenses. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below.

References

Free and Open Source software licenses explained - The Linux Experiment

This post was written for the 2024 Winter Mogakso Activity.