FRS // n.,obs.
Abbreviation for "Freely Redistributable
Software" which entered general use on the Internet in 1995 after
years of low-level confusion over what exactly to call software
written to be passed around and shared (contending terms including
freeware, shareware, and `sourceware' were never
universally felt to be satisfactory for various subtle reasons).
The first formal conference on freely redistributable software was
held in Cambridge, Massachussetts, in February 1996 (sponsored by the
Free Software Foundation). The conference organizers used the FRS
abbreviation heavily in its calls for papers and other literature
during 1995. The term was in steady though not common use until
1998 and the invention of open source.
Abbreviation for "Freely Redistributable
Software" which entered general use on the Internet in 1995 after
years of low-level confusion over what exactly to call software
written to be passed around and shared (contending terms including
freeware, shareware, and `sourceware' were never
universally felt to be satisfactory for various subtle reasons).
The first formal conference on freely redistributable software was
held in Cambridge, Massachussetts, in February 1996 (sponsored by the
Free Software Foundation). The conference organizers used the FRS
abbreviation heavily in its calls for papers and other literature
during 1995. The term was in steady though not common use until
1998 and the invention of open source.
Related:
- open source n.
[common; also adj. `open-source']
Term coined in March 1998 following the Mozilla release to
describe software distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing
anybody rights to freely use,
modify, and redistribute, the code. The intent... - freeware n.
[common] Free software, often written by
enthusiasts and distributed by users' groups,
or via electronic mail, local bulletin boards, Usenet... - General Public Virus: n. Pejorative name for some versions of the
{GNU} project {copyleft} or General Public License (GPL),
which requires that any tools or {app}s incorporating... - gnubie /noo'bee/ n.
Written-only variant of newbie in
common use on IRC channels,
which implies specifically someone who is new to... - PD /P-D/ adj.
[common] Abbreviation for `public
domain',
applied to software distributed over Usenet and from... - FSF /F-S-F/ abbrev.
Common abbreviation (both spoken and
written) for the name of the Free Software Foundation,
a nonprofit educational association formed to support... - Internet n.
The mother of all networks. First
incarnated beginning in 1969 as the ARPANET,
a U.S. Department of Defense research testbed. ... - Linux /lee'nuhks/ or /li'nuks/, not /li:'nuhks/
n.
The free Unix workalike created by Linus Torvalds and... - shareware /sheir'weir/ n.
A kind of freeware (sense
1) for which the author requests some payment,
usually in the accompanying documentation files...
