By which I mean "free" as in "free speech" (libre) rather than "free beer" (gratis). This is software that allows everyone to examine the source code, to modify it to their liking, and to share their modifications with others. (Famous examples include the Linux kernel, the GNU operating environment, the Apache server, the MySQL database, the Perl scripting language, the Firefox web browser, and the OpenOffice.org office suite.)

I honestly don't know and am genuinely seeking feminists' thoughts on this, so please don't assume that I am trying to tell feminists what to care about.

Anyway, here's why I am asking:

Proprietary software is generally controlled by large corporations run by rich, white men. It is distributed to "end users" on a "take it or leave it' basis, often under very lopsided (and sometimes illegal) licensing terms. You don't OWN your copy of Windows, you purchase a license to USE it and they reserve the right to revoke that license for various reasons.

Free software is a good thing. It's more of a human issue than a particularly feminist issue, but nonetheless it's something that everybody (except the big corporations, haha) should support. And I don't think it would hurt feminism at all to support such a good idea (as a side note, feminism would really benefit from such a positive association)...in fact, it could only help feminists, women, and humanity in general to have more and better free software.