Nordic countries are all examples of countries where education is Free Online Games And Downloadable free all the way up including post-graduate studies. In Sweden and Finland, there is not even Free Online Games And Downloadable a fee for foreign students enrolling Free Online Games And Downloadable at a university (exchange or not), although they may not be eligible for the monthly study allowance and Free Online Games And Downloadable loan most nationals are.
Several other European countries, such as England and Germany, have had a history Free Online Games And Downloadable of some forms of free Free Online Games And Downloadable education, as well as Australia. In the 1970s the Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam introduced reforms which ensured Free Online Games And Downloadable free tertiary education. These reforms were removed later in the 1980s by the Bob Hawke Labor government. Students and radicals played an important part in forcing the Whitlam government to implement the free Free Online Games And Downloadable education system as well as opposing the Free Online Games And Downloadable introduction of tertiary fees in the 1980s.
In some developing countries like Sri Lanka education Free Online Games And Downloadable is given Free Online Games And Downloadable free from the primary level up to the tertiary Free Online Games And Downloadable level. In Jamaica following the general election on September 3rd 2008, the new Prime Minster declared free tution cost for all secondary school students.
Nowadays, as for many parts Free Online Games And Downloadable of the world Free Online Games And Downloadable outside Free Online Games And Downloadable the Nordic countries, free education usually comes to students in the form of scholarship and grants, Free Online Games And Downloadable if they cover all Free Online Games And Downloadable or most of students' expenses while Free Online Games And Downloadable at school. Patrons for grants and scholarships may be individuals, institutions (often the school itself), advocacy initiatives, etc. They may have economic (e.g. tax-deductibility), humanitarian, charitable or Free Online Games And Downloadable religious reasons. Ireland has free education at all levels, including college and university which is also free.
reedom is a very broad concept Free Online Games And Downloadable that has been given numerous different interpretations by different philosophies and schools of thought. The protection of interpersonal freedom can be the object Free Online Games And Downloadable of a social and political investigation, while the metaphysical foundation of inner freedom is a philosophical and psychological question. Free Online Games And Downloadable Both forms of freedom come together in each Free Online Games And Downloadable individual as the internal and external values mesh Free Online Games And Downloadable together in a dynamic compromise and Free Online Games And Downloadable power struggle; the society fighting Free Online Games And Downloadable for power Free Online Games And Downloadable in defining the values of individuals and the individual fighting for societal acceptance and respect in establishing one's own values in it.
In philosophy, Free Online Games And Downloadable freedom often ties in with the question of free will. Libertarian philosophers have argued that all human beings are always Free Online Games And Downloadable free - Jean-Paul Sartre, for instance, famously claimed that humans are "condemned to be free" - because Free Online Games And Downloadable they Free Online Games And Downloadable always have a choice even an external authority can Free Online Games And Downloadable only threaten punishment after Free Online Games And Downloadable an action, not physically prevent a person from carrying out an action. At the other end of the spectrum, determinism claims that the future is pre-determined and freedom is an illusion.
|
The philosopher Isaiah Berlin drew an important distinction between "freedom from" Free Online Games And Downloadable (negative freedom) and "freedom to" (positive freedom). For example, freedom Free Online Games And Downloadable from oppression and freedom to develop one's potential. Both these types Free Online Games And Downloadable of freedom Free Online Games And Downloadable are in Free Online Games And Downloadable fact reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Freedom as the absence of restraint means unwilling to subjugate, lacking submission, or Free Online Games And Downloadable without forceful inequality. The achievement of this form Free Online Games And Downloadable of freedom depends upon a combination of the Free Online Games And Downloadable resistance of the individual (or group) and one's (their) environment; if one is in jail or even limited by a lack of resources, this person is free within their power and environment, but not free to defy reality. Natural laws restrict this form Free Online Games And Downloadable of freedom; for instance, no one is free to fly (though we may or may not be free to attempt to do so). Free Online Games And Downloadable Isaiah Berlin appears to call this kind of freedom "negative freedom" - an absence of obstacles put in the Free Online Games And Downloadable way of my action (especially by other people). He distinguishes Free Online Games And Downloadable this from "positive freedom", which refers to one's power to make choices Free Online Games And Downloadable leading to action.
Free software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified Free Online Games And Downloadable or unmodified form either without restriction, Free Online Games And Downloadable or with restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things. To make Free Online Games And Downloadable these acts possible, the human readable Free Online Games And Downloadable form of the program (the "source code") must Free Online Games And Downloadable be made available. The source Free Online Games And Downloadable code may be either accompanied by a notice granting Free Online Games And Downloadable the Free Online Games And Downloadable above Free Online Games And Downloadable permissions (a free software licence), or, much less commonly, the source code can be released into public domain. The free software movement was launched in 1983 to make these freedoms available to every computer user.
From Free Online Games And Downloadable the late 1990s onward, alternative terms for free software Free Online Games And Downloadable came into use. "Open source software" is the most common such alternative term. Others include Free Online Games And Downloadable "software libre", "free, libre and open-source software" ("FLOSS"), Free Online Games And Downloadable and "free and open Free Online Games And Downloadable source software" ("FOSS"). The antonym of free software is "proprietary software" or non-free software.
Free software is Free Online Games And Downloadable distinct from "freeware" which Free Online Games And Downloadable is proprietary Free Online Games And Downloadable software made available free of charge. Users Free Online Games And Downloadable usually cannot study, modify, or Free Online Games And Downloadable redistribute freeware. The only Free Online Games And Downloadable permission freeware has in common with free software is the permission to use the software.
|
Since free software may be freely Free Online Games And Downloadable redistributed, it generally Free Online Games And Downloadable is available at little or no cost. Free software business models Free Online Games And Downloadable are usually based on adding value such as support, training, customization, integration, or certification. At the same time, some business Free Online Games And Downloadable models Free Online Games And Downloadable which work with proprietary software Free Online Games And Downloadable are not compatible with free software, such as those that depend on a user having no Free Online Games And Downloadable choice but to pay for a licence in order to lawfully use a software product.
Free software is a huge international effort, producing software used by individuals, large organizations, and governmental administrations. Free software has a very high market penetration in server-side Internet applications such as the Apache web server, MySQL Free Online Games And Downloadable database, and PHP scripting language. Completely free computing environments are available as large packages Free Online Games And Downloadable of basic system software such Free Online Games And Downloadable as the many Linux distributions and FreeBSD. Free software developers have also created free versions of almost all Free Online Games And Downloadable commonly used desktop applications such as web browsers, office productivity suites, and multimedia players. It is important to note, however, that Free Online Games And Downloadable in many categories, free software for individual workstation or home users has only a fraction of the market share of Free Online Games And Downloadable their Free Online Games And Downloadable proprietary competitors. Most free software is distributed online without charge, or off-line at the marginal cost of distribution, Free Online Games And Downloadable but this is not required, and people may sell copies for any price.
The economic viability of free software Free Online Games And Downloadable has been recognised by large Free Online Games And Downloadable corporations such Free Online Games And Downloadable as IBM, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems. Many companies whose core Free Online Games And Downloadable business is not in the IT sector choose free Free Online Games And Downloadable software for their Internet information and sales Free Online Games And Downloadable sites, due to the lower Free Online Games And Downloadable initial capital investment Free Online Games And Downloadable and ability to freely customize the application packages. Also, some non-software industries are beginning to use techniques similar to those used in Free Online Games And Downloadable free software Free Online Games And Downloadable development for their research and development: scientists, for example, are looking towards more open development processes, and hardware such as microchips Free Online Games And Downloadable are beginning to be developed with specifications released under copyleft licenses (see the OpenCores project, for Free Online Games And Downloadable instance). Creative Commons and the free culture movement have also Free Online Games And Downloadable been largely influenced by the free software movement. |