Glossary

Term Definition Examples
Software Piece of code able to be run on a computer web browser, text editor, PDF reader
FLOSS Free/libre and open-source software. Code anyone can inspect, change, share Linux, Firefox, LibreOffice
Process Procedure of running a program on a specific computer
Protocol Common language spoken by applications over a network HTTP, email, ActivityPub, ATProto, Matrix
Federation Independent servers speaking a shared protocol, forming one network Mastodon, Matrix servers email providers
Fork Your own modified copy of a piece of software Brave is a fork of Chromium
Self-hosting Running a service on hardware you (or your community) control our Nextcloud and JupyterHub