FOSS stands for Free Open Source Software.

In many cases, this means GPL-licensed software. However, there are numerous other FOSS licenses. As a general rule, these licenses have one key point in common: they allow use and redistribution of source code without payment or royalties.

Depending on the license used, various restrictions may apply. For example, in many cases, if you distribute binaries based on FOSS source code, you must make any source code patches or modifications used available.

Note: The Free Software Foundation takes the latter requirement further. Their position seems to be that Linux distro vendors may need to distribute source code for GPL-licensed packages whether or not the source code has been modified.

To continue, press the browser's Back button.