Re: open source or free software?
On Sun, Aug 31, 2014 at 09:42:00PM +1000, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
> On 8/31/14, Werner Baumann <werner.baumann@onlinehome.de> wrote:
> > I don't feel the need to talk about "open soure" on depian-project at
> > the moment. But if you do, don't forget the origins. A good summary is
> > at http://oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/raymond2.html. It is
> > really worth reading from first hand what the intentions of the
> > Open-Source-campaign are.
> >
> > I especially like this bit:
> > "It seemed clear to us in retrospect that the term "free software" had
> > done our movement tremendous damage over the years. Part of this
> > stemmed from the well-known "free-speech/free-beer" ambiguity. Most of
> > it came from something worse--the strong association of the term "free
> > software" with hostility to intellectual property rights, communism,
> > and other ideas hardly likely to endear themselves to an MIS manager."
>
> :)
>
> That is funny.
>
>
> > And so I will stay with the communist term "free software".
>
> It seems to me the term "libre software" resonates reasonably
> unambiguously throughout 'the community'. Good luck getting
> the FSF to use that term though... there are many years of
> 'investment' in the term "free software" and it is embedded
> deeply in license terms, and documentation.
>
Hi Zenaan,
No, in fact rms will quite happily use the libre word - wherever
possible I use FLOSS - Free/Libre/Open Source Software - and emphasise
that fact that it's not free of cost (or work - you still may have to check
licence conditions/comply with linking/distribution restrictions) - but that
the freedom is to modify, work with, fix bugs in ...
FLOSS is a good word - even esr and Bruce Perens have come to appreciate
that the OSD - based in turn on Debian's Free Software Guidelines - was,
in retrospect a confusing factor and made things difficult.
Hope this helps,
AndyC
>
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