Re: Free v's Open Source software
On Nov 13, Glenn McGrath wrote:
> I expect that what we define as being "non-free" software is much more
> acceptable to Open Source people than to Free Software people.
>
> If that statemnt holds true then we are debating "Free software" v's "Open
> Source Software", and how much (if any) tolerance debian should have to
> Open Source software that isnt Free Software.
The set "open source software" is almost congruent(*) to the set
"software that meets the Debian Free Software Guidelines" (or
"free-in-Debian's-opinion") at least if you take as "open source" that
software that meets the Open Source Definition. Ergo, if it's Open
Source, it's already eligible for main.
I think the real question is one of ideology versus pragmatism, which
is more important than the "Open Source" versus "Free" debate (more
about labelling and who is trotted out to represent it than actual
substance). To put it another way, this debate is more in the realm
of "Linus versus RMS" than it is "ESR versus RMS".
Chris
(*) IIRC there are no exceptions, and the sets are the same, but I
don't know if every single OSI-approved license is used in Debian main.
--
Chris Lawrence <cnlawren@phy.olemiss.edu> - http://www.lordsutch.com/chris/
Computer Systems Manager, Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Mississippi
125B Lewis Hall - 662-915-5765
Reply to: