Free Source Software
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Free Source Software (or Free Software, or Open Source Software) is software that is free from all the restrictions of "ordinary" proprietary software. You can use Free Source Software without any restrictions. You can copy Free Source Software and pass it on to your friends as you like. You can also study or alter the source code, and distribute your own versions. You can even reuse parts of it in your own programs.

There is a very interesting introduction to the idea of Free Software, and how it came up, at the FSF website.

Up to now, most free software is made by hobby programers in their spare time. However, there are also a couple of commercial organizations making Free Source Software, and they may get more in the future.

There are several different licenses for Free Source Software. The most popular (used for example by the GNU/Linux operating system) is the GNU GPL (GNU General Public License) from the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which esentially states that you can do anything with the software, as long as it remains free. (This last reservation is called copyleft.)

Netrik uses the GPL.

If you never heard of the GPL, or if you heard of it but never really knew what it's all about, you should read it. It's only a few pages, and it's well written. You should at least read the Preface, which explains the purpose of the license (especially the copyleft), and the idea of Free Software.

And don't even dare using netrik, as long as you do not know what Free Software is ;-)