Glossary
Acronym: An acronym is a special type of abbreviation. It is often a word formed using the initial letters of words in a sentence or definition. Recursive acronyms are abbreviations, which acquired a meaning themselves. An example of this is GNU, which stands for “GNU’s Not Unix”.
Binary code: In computing the term binary code refers to the translated version of a source code, i.e. the text of a program, where the individual instructions of the program are expressed in a specific data-coding language by means of zero and one characters. Binary codes result from a sort of translation of the source code version, which can be read by humans, into a machine-readable format.
Compiler: A compiler is a program that can translate source codes of programs written in human-readable programming language (e.g. Pascal, C, or C++) into machine-readable codes. The result of such translation or compiling process is a binary code. Thus, a complier (e.g. the GNU C Compiler, GCC) translates a source code into a program that can be understood and run by a computer.
Emacs: Emacs (acronym for “Editor MACroS”) is a text editor. It was developed by Richard Stallman and any further function can be added. Its basic configuration already includes a calendar, different tools to read e-mails or news, a command interpreter, games and a web browser. Emacs is available under the GNU General Public License and it is currently used in most ordinary operating systems.
Free Software Foundation: The Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded by Richard Stallman in 1985 as a non-profit institution to promote and distribute Free Software. The FSF pools revenues and donations to develop the GNU project and other forms of Free Software. In 1989, with the GNU General Public License the FSF presented the most important license of Free Software. In order to act more efficiently at a regional level, in 2001 FSF Europe and FSF India were also founded. Today the FSF mostly deals with coordination activities for the legal and structural interests of the Free Software community.
Freeware: Freeware is free software, which is distributed by the author at no cost. There is a clear difference between Free Software and Freeware, in that the latter is released without source code and often without license.
GNU General Public License: The GNU General Public License (abbreviated as “GPL”) is the most known Free Software license in the world. The GPL protects programs’ freedom through a system entailing the same legal protection for derived versions as well. Amongst the most popular and released programs under the GPL license, there are several GNU projects, the kernel of Linux operating system, MySQL database system and OpenOffice.org software package.
GNU: The GNU project was set up by Richard Stallman in 1984 with the aim to develop a free operating system like Unix. Little by little, most elements of a free operating environment were systematically processed. Many GNU elements took on a sort of “life of their own”: they could replace the relevant Unix components and quite often they proved to be better than their proprietary counterparts. For this reason, many of them became popular as standard devices even among administrators of proprietary Unix systems. Besides the technical project itself, within the framework of the GNU project Stallman also defined the notion of “Free Software”, he founded the Free Software Foundation and created the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Hacking: Until the 1980s, the programmers’ community used the term “hacker” to define all the people involved in software development. From the mid-1980s some media started to use the term “hacker” with a pejorative meaning, indicating all computer experts who used their skills mostly for criminal purposes. (Unfortunately) this idea has strongly persisted up until today in the majority of the public opinion. Among experts in free Software development, the term “hacking” is still used to refer to activities of shared programming and exchange of software knowledge. In this context, whenever people are defined as “hackers” they even feel a sense of respect for ethics, i.e. the vision according to which software knowledge must be shared without limitations and must be made available to all humanity at no cost. Consequently, the so-called destructive “hackers” are defined with other pejorative terms, e.g. “crasher” or “cracker”.
Kernel: The kernel, originally known as nucleus, is the core component of operating systems, in other words it is like the cockpit in an aircraft. The kernel administers the operation devices of computers, on which all other components of the operating system are based. Therefore, the kernel of the operating system is the interface for application programs. It controls access to the processor, the various devices and the memory. It distributes, structures and gives access to resources. Moreover, the kernel monitors the rights to access files and tools in case of network systems.
Open Source: The terms “Open Source” and “Free Software” actually define the same identical thing. Those preferring to use the term “Free Software” stress the idea of freedom, although such freedom does not necessarily mean free of charge. Those using the term “Open Source Software” stress the fact that in this software the source code is open, .i.e. it is accessible. Having the source code accessible is the prerequisite in order to modify a program.
Operating system: An operating system (OS) is software, which makes it possible to use a computer, i.e. it makes a computer work. Operating systems normally consist of a kernel governing the computer hardware, and of some fundamental system components. These are necessary to start and configure the operating system, run the programs, manage the memory, as well as input and output devices. In almost all computers there is an operating system: real-time processing systems are found in process control computers and in normal PCs, whereas multiple processor systems are found in servers and central computers. A distinction is also made between single-user systems and multiple-user systems, between individual-program systems and multiple-program systems, between accumulation processing systems and interactive mode systems.
Proprietary: The very opposite of “Free Software” or “Open Source Software” would be the term “Closed Source Software”. However, this label has never become really established. The term “proprietary software” was instead more successful. The term “proprietary” means “owned by the producer”, therefore it is the most precise and comprehensive way to indicate that software is neither free, nor open source.
Source code: Source code is a text of a program written in programming language, such as Pascal, C, or C++. This text consists of language including signs and words and it resembles the English language: e.g. “#include <stdio.h> int main(void) {printf("Hello world!\n"); return 0”. In order for a computer to be able to understand and run a program, first of all the source code needs to be translated into a machine-readable language, i.e. a binary code. For this type of operation a compiler can be used, i.e. a sort of translation tool. Should one need to make frequent changes to the program, then it is necessary to have access to the source code.
Text editor: An editor is software used to manage, create, visualize and modify a text file. A text editor is included in every operating system or software development package. It is commonly used to modify configuration files of the operating system or of applications, to write the source code of another software program or simply to take notes.
Unix: Unix, originally UNICS (Uniplexed Information and Computing Service), is a portable operating system, developed from 1969 by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and others at the Bell Telephone Laboratories (which then became AT&T). In the relevant literature, the term Unix is usually employed to indicate operating systems with Unix-type features, whereas the term UNIX (with all capital letters) is used to indicate certified systems. Among the Unix-type operating systems, there are, for example, the following systems: BSD, Mac OS X, HP-UX, AIX, IRIX and Solaris. Some other systems, such as GNU/Linux or QNX are not derived from Unix in a historical sense, as they are not based on the original Unix source text.
