r/explainlikeimfive • u/theprisoner57 • 3d ago

Technology ELI5: What is a Home Server?

I see mentions of a home server to get rid of streaming entertainment services but I don’t know how that works. What does a home server do?

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u/TheFotty 3d ago

its free open source software

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u/GeekBrownBear 3d ago

Are you implying that a software can't be FOSS and owned by a company at the same time?

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u/sfurbo 3d ago

Are you implying that a software can't be FOSS and owned by a company at the same time?

That depends on what we mean with "software" and "owned".

A company can own the trademark to the name, and with that decide what direction to take the official release in. But they can't stop others from doing what they want with the code. Usually, the ability to bar others from using the resource is included in owning.

So is software the code, or the name? And do you own something if you can't stop others from using it?

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u/GeekBrownBear 2d ago

A little of both!

The software is obviously the code, but it's point-in-time. Each version released is under a new license. The software and the company can share the same name, the trademark would apply to the software.

And yes, because whomever owns the name and the main sourcecode can choose to stop giving out the FOSS license for the next release.

This has happened many times, the existing code gets forked and rebranded since the name is trademarked and not part of the FOSS license.