Why Kicksecure will always be Free as in Price as well as in Freedom
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Why Kicksecure will always be Free as in Price as well as in Freedom. Security, Legal, Ethical and other Reasons. No Intentional User Freedom Restrictions.
Overview[edit]
Table: Why Kicksecure is Freedom Software / Open Source
| Motivation | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Security | Open Source software like Qubes, Debian and Kicksecure is more secure than proprietary/closed source software. The public scrutiny of security by design has proven to be superior to security through obscurity. This aligns the software development process with Kerckhoffs' principle - the basis of modern cipher-systems design. This principle asserts that systems must be secure, even if the adversary knows everything about how they work. Generally speaking, Freedom Software projects are much more open and respectful of the privacy rights of users. Freedom Software projects also encourage security bug reports, open discussion, public fixes and review.
|
| Legal | Kicksecure is based on Freedom Software. A lot of Libre licensed software prohibits modification and distribution without sharing the modified source code.
|
| Ethics | Kicksecure developers believe it is immoral to benefit from those Free/Freedom Software components and give back nothing. We stand on the shoulders of giants - Kicksecure and many other Libre software projects are only made possible because people invested in writing code that is kept accessible for the public benefit.
|
| Community | It is rewarding and enjoyable to have all types of people contributing. This works best in Open Source projects.
|
| Impact | When free in price, Kicksecure can spread faster than commercial tools that cannot provide security by default/design. |
| Commerce | Developers hope to make a living from Kicksecure by selling additional services. (Plus Support | Premium Support) |
| Career | Our experience volunteering on this project improves our skill set and makes us more valuable employees. |
No Intentional User Freedom Restrictions[edit]
In the spirit of Freedom Software, Kicksecure does not intentionally restrict user freedoms. Kicksecure documentation might discourage certain configurations, but ultimately the user is free to ignore such advice.
In their default state, programs developed under the Kicksecure banner may afford additional protection against unsafe user configurations. For example, users are unable to - no good example yet - since this is a known security risk and recommended against, but documentation is still provided on how to disable this security mechanism. Simply put, the end user maintains ultimate control over the final Kicksecure configuration best suited to their needs.
Since Kicksecure is based on Debian it is valid to state that Kicksecure has adopted a specific Debian configuration. For this reason advanced Debian users can independently replicate the same technical implementation. Anything Kicksecure has pre-configured can be re-/de-configured by the user without restriction. User customization is not prevented by technologies used inside Kicksecure, nor is configuration of Kicksecure intentionally obfuscated.
Simply put, the end user maintains ultimate control over the final Kicksecure configuration that best suits their needs.
Software Fork Friendly[edit]
Kicksecure policy is that the name of the project should ideally be a variable so it can be easily changed through a software fork.
For example, Kicksecure wiki markup text does not write Kicksecure literally. Instead it uses variables such as project_name_long which contains variable content Kicksecure. By changing the contents of that wiki template to a different textual string such as MyForkedProject, the name of the project would change wiki wide from Kicksecure to MyForkedProject.
This is also the reason why many packages names developed under the Kicksecure umbrella contain dist (which is a generic abbreviation meaning "distribution") instead of kicksecure-. Kicksecure source code such as package names avoid using the literal string Kicksecure as much as possible. Contributions towards that effort are welcome.
See Also[edit]
- Miscellaneous Threats to User Freedom
- Kicksecure Policy on Non-Freedom Software
- Policy of the Kicksecure Website and Chat
Unfinished: This wiki is a work in progress. Please do not report broken links until this notice is removed, use Search Engines First and contribute improving this wiki.
At Kicksecure we value freedom and trust, supporting Open Source and Freedom Software
ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LP,
2023
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