+ 2014-01-05 Sun 04:24, ilias.k.cs@freemail.gr ilias.k.cs@freemail.gr:
In short, how can I know what a system I am using actually does, in a legal way, besides sticking to the systems I know for certain that are free? How do we deal with uncertainty?
I am not sure I have understood your question. But as far as knowing "in a legal way" what’s going on, I would say that there’s not much to worry about, as a user, than if it is a free software/open source license or not.
GNU.org maintains a list of free software licenses: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html (this is roughly the same list as the list of open source licenses maintained by OSI).
Of course, there are many other issues to worry about:
- does it use open standards? see http://fsfe.org/activities/os/ - is it spying/tracking? - is it possible to run it on your own server?
etc.