Free software development is about creating software that can be used, copied and modified by everyone. The best properties of software are that it is:
Free software developers allow their users the full benefit of software -- use, redistribution and modification.
Some free software developers are more interested in having people use their software than turning a profit (or at least, turning a profit from just selling licenses). Others have used free software to do useful work, and want to give something back. Some enjoy the chance to contribute in a meaningful way to a large project or a technically advanced field. Some just enjoy the helpful and friendly (if sometimes very opinionated) free software community. And some just want to use, modify or distribute the software so that they can be as productive as possible in the business that they are really interested in.
These pages are concerned with providing resources to people who want to develop free software. If you're not a free software developer, feel free to use these resources anyway, but the emphasis might not be right for you. I certainly won't be detailing any of the nefarious tools or techniques that only proprietry software developers would find essential - software lockouts, source code obsfuctors, how to cripple your software, etc. I encourage you, however, to look at the richness of free software, and, if you can, contribute in some way.
