"Freedom is... the GNU Operating System. GNU is the first operating system designed to give you, the user, the freedom to share, study and modify it. We call this free software, because the user is free. GNU and free software are used by millions of people all over the world.

Free software is simply software that respects our freedom -- our freedom to learn and understand the software we are using.

Free software is software you can study, modify and share without restriction. But unlike proprietary software, there is no big budget marketing campaign behind it. Rather, people discover it and come to value the freedom it provides. What are these people's motivations for working on free software? Why is community and sharing so important? Why should everyone be using free software?

Associate members of the Free Software Foundation form a dedicated part of the community: a free software society that supports the ethical cause of computer users' freedom.. If you support the goal of a free software society, please join with your peers around the world in taking this important step.

"...The free software movement is primarily concerned with building and defending software freedom—the freedom to run, share, and modify published computer software. This is an ethical consideration borne out of considering how we ought to treat one another using computers and software [...] Calling attention to the name "GNU" helps draw attention to the cause of freedom and cooperation..."

"... «By publishing this guide, we hope to share our knowledge, just as free software developers do when they share their creations with the world» said James Vasile, Counsel at SFLC. «I take great pride in this work put together by my colleagues, and I expect that it will be especially useful to developers of free software.» ..."

According to a statement issued by Zyxware Technologies, a vending machine that can be used to copy and distribute free and open source software has been made possible due to the freedom associated with free software. Free software allows people to use, study, modify and share software without any restrictions.

"...Free software is software that respects its user’s freedom. With free software the user is free to use the program as they wish. They are free to study how the program works, and to distribute copies of the software. They are free to improve the software and to re-distribute copies of the improved version, to support their community..."

"Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, because only free software respects the users' freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only. It says that non-free software is a suboptimal solution.