Why we share free software
Free software is software that gives everyone who uses it four freedoms: to run it for any purpose, to study and change how it works, to share copies, and to share their changed versions. Noiz builds its hosting, security and software on free software, and we recommend it and pass it on, because those freedoms are central to what the company is for. This article explains what the freedoms mean, how licences protect them, and what sharing looks like in practice.
The four freedoms
The Free Software Foundation defines free software by four freedoms:
| Freedom | What it lets you do |
|---|---|
| 0 | Run the program as you wish, for any purpose |
| 1 | Study how it works and change it to do what you want |
| 2 | Share copies, so you can help others |
| 3 | Share copies of your changed versions, so others benefit from your improvements |
Freedoms 1 and 3 depend on access to the source code, the human-readable form of the program. Without it, you can use software but never understand or fix it.
"Free" here is about liberty, not price. The Free Software Foundation's own shorthand is to think of free speech, not free beer. Free software can be sold, supported commercially and used in any business. What it cannot do is take the freedoms away from the next person.
Copyleft: keeping software free
A program released with no conditions can be taken, changed and turned into a closed product. Copyleft prevents that. It uses copyright law to require that anyone who passes the program on, changed or not, passes on the same freedoms with it. The GNU General Public License (GPL) is the best-known copyleft licence.
Software that runs on a server raises a further question. A company can change GPL software and offer it as an online service without ever handing a copy to anyone, so the changes need never be shared. The GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) closes that gap: if a changed program is offered to users over a network, they must be able to download its source code. Nextcloud, one of the applications we offer, uses the AGPL.
Not every free licence is copyleft. Permissive licences such as MIT allow the code to be used in closed products, and the Free Software Foundation regards that software as free too. Copyleft is the method the GNU project chose to protect the freedoms over time.
Free software and open source
"Open source" describes much the same body of software from a different angle. The Open Source Initiative's definition sets out ten criteria a licence must meet, including free redistribution, access to the source code, permission to create derived works, and no discrimination against any person, group or field of use. Most licences meet both definitions. The difference is emphasis: free software speaks of users' freedom, open source of a way of developing software in the open. Noiz uses both terms and cares most about the freedoms.
Why sharing fits what Noiz is for
Noiz's mission is to use technology to enhance human freedom, countering centralised control. Free software is that mission applied to code:
- No lock-in. Our values include "no proprietary dependency the client cannot escape". A client on free software can take the system to another provider, or run it themselves, without asking anyone's permission.
- Code anyone can check. When the code is public, a bug or a weakness can be found by anyone, and a fix does not wait on one vendor.
- Improvements return to everyone. A fix to free software is a fix for every other user of it.
- Skills over secrets. Our business is running systems well, not owning code that others are kept from reading.
What sharing looks like in practice
For Noiz, sharing free software looks like this:
- We build on free software first and recommend it to clients wherever a sound choice exists.
- We help clients run it. A client on free software can run it with our help, or without it.
- We run free services for anyone. [noiz] send, our public instance of the open-source Send, lets anyone share a file by link.
Share it with someone
The Free Software Foundation asks people to pledge to start a conversation with a friend about free software, and to introduce them to it gradually, one program at a time. It is a small act, and it spreads software freedom further than any licence can. If there is a free program that changed how you work, pass it on.
For our part, we will keep building on free software, passing it on, and helping clients run it. Our About page sets out the values behind that.
Sources
Checked 19 October 2026.
- GNU: What is free software?
- GNU: What is copyleft?
- GNU: Why the Affero GPL
- Open Source Initiative: The Open Source Definition
- FSF: Make a pledge to share free software with a friend
- About Noiz
- [noiz] send
Note: while some of this content was produced with the help of AI, the final editing has been done by a real human being.
