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What is "Free Software?"
Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”.
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.
More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3).
Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
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At the present time the source code for the game Ryzom is made to run the game. However the vast majority of the code is generic and can be easily reused to create new MMORPGs. In the early days of Ryzom and NeL development this was exactly the intention so Ryzom already has the history and the essential ground work to make this a reality. One of our first goals will be to refactor as much source code as possible into a more generic and reusable structure. This is not to say that this is our only goal as there will be other significant improvement efforts on the whole game and framework such as porting to additional operating systems or improvements to the 3D libraries. You can see a brief version roadmapRoad Map on the development portal which lists our high level miletones and the issues necessary to build that release.
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Each time the Ryzom development community (affectionately referred to as the Yubo the Yubo Herders) and begin planning the roadmapRoad Map for the next version release all of the issues and feature requests pending a version assignment will be assessed and assigned a version. A variety of factors will go into whether a feature is scheduled including its complexity, the desire of the change in the community and the available resources to create it.
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You can always request the modification of a feature or the removal of a feature through submission of an new issue but keep in mind the difference between asking for changes to the game and changes to the project.
What is a Yubo Herder?
A A Yubo Herder is an is a nickname for an an active member of the Ryzom development community that has been granted privileged access such as the ability to push to the master repository. Yubo Herders are inducted quarterly by the Ryzom developers and other Yubo Herders based upon merit. For those who wonder what the heck a Yubo is check this video.
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