[obs.] Abbreviation for Freely Redistributable
Software
which entered general use on the Internet in 1995 after
years of low-level confusion over what exactly to call software written to
be passed around and shared (contending terms including
freeware, shareware, and
sourceware were never universally
felt to be satisfactory for various subtle reasons). The first formal
conference on freely redistributable software was held in Cambridge,
Massachussetts, in February 1996 (sponsored by the Free Software
Foundation). The conference organizers used the FRS abbreviation heavily in
its calls for papers and other literature during 1995. The term was in
steady though not common use until 1998 and the invention of
open source, after which it became swiftly
obsolete.