Should manuals for free software be free?

It is far from clear to us whether/how the advantages of free software apply to manuals for free software. Probably the argument for a free manual is strongest when the manual is mostly closely tied to the software (for example, a comprehensive description of how all the features work) and weakest when the manual is furthest away (for example, a book which aims to help beginning users learn the most commonly used features). In the former case modifying the manual is closely tied to the act of modifying the software; the in latter case the manual is likely to be applicable to modified versions of the software as well.

What are some free manuals?

The following manuals are free manuals but also sold as paper copies.

The book Effective AWK Programming provides complete coverage of the AWK programming language. It is published jointly by SSC and the Free Software Foundation.

There is a rumor that Jeremy Allison's upcoming Samba book will be free ("Here's 'The Skinny'", LinuxWorld, November 1998). I guess we'll have to wait for it to come out and see the license.

The Free Software Foundation publishes a number of titles, including:

• Using and porting the GNU C Compiler is the user manual for the GCC C/C++ compiler.
• Debugging with GDB is the user manual for the GDB debugger.
• GNU Emacs Manual is the user manual for the Emacs editor/environment. It comes with a reference card.

What do we mean by "free manual"?

Pretty much the same as what we mean by "free software". The key features are availability of the source code (defined as the preferred form for making modifications), and the ability to redistribute and modify the manual.

For More Information

The open source writers group is a resource for volunteers writing documentation for free software.

The Debian Free Software Guidelines codify what we mean by "free software".

The article "Free Software and Free Manuals" from the Free Software Foundation discusses the issues with free manuals at greater length.