proprietary

[Raul Miller <moth@debian.org>]

Voting starts in less than 48 hours.  I'd rather not see us spending
a whole lot of time discussing the finer points of the meaning of
"proprietary".

Anyways, below is what "dict proprietary" returns on my system.

I can find a definition in here to match each of the viewpoints which
have been expressed on this list.  I hope that future posts which touch on
these topics will be capable of dealing with all definitions of the word.

Thanks,

-- 
Raul


5 definitions found

>From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

  Proprietary \Pro*pri"e*ta*ry\, a. [L. proprietarius.]
     Belonging, or pertaining, to a proprietor; considered as
     property; owned; as, proprietary medicine.
  
     {Proprietary articles}, manufactured articles which some
        person or persons have exclusive right to make and sell.
        --U. S. Statutes.

>From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

  Proprietary \Pro*pri"e*ta*ry\ (?), n.; pl. {Proprietaries} (#).
     [L. proprietarius: cf. F. propriétaire. See Propriety,
     and cf. Proprietor.]
     1. A proprietor or owner; one who has exclusive title to a
        thing; one who possesses, or holds the title to, a thing
        in his own right. --Fuller.
  
     2. A body proprietors, taken collectively.
  
     3. (Eccl.) A monk who had reserved goods and effects to
        himself, notwithstanding his renunciation of all at the
        time of profession.

>From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:

  proprietary
       adj : protected by trademark or patent or copyright; made or
             produced or distributed by one having exclusive rights;
             "`Tylenol' is a proprietary drug of which
             `acetaminophen' is the generic form" [ant: {nonproprietary}]
       n : an unincorporated business owned by a single person who is
           responsible for its liabilities and entitled to its
           profits [syn: {proprietorship}]

>From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Jan 01) [foldoc]:

  proprietary
  
     1. In {marketroid}-speak, superior; implies a product imbued
     with exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of the
     company's own hardware or software designers.
  
     2. In the language of hackers and users, inferior; implies a
     product not conforming to {open-systems} {standard}s, and thus
     one that puts the customer at the mercy of a vendor who can
     inflate service and upgrade charges after the initial sale has
     locked the customer in.
  
     [{Jargon File}]
  
  

>From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]:

  proprietary adj.  1. In {marketroid}-speak, superior; implies a
  product imbued with exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of
  the company's own hardware or software designers.  2. In the language
  of hackers and users, inferior; implies a product not conforming to
  open-systems standards, and thus one that puts the customer at the
  mercy of a vendor able to gouge freely on service and upgrade charges
  after the initial sale has locked the customer in.  Often in the phrase
  "proprietary crap".  3. Synonym for closed-source, e.g. software issued
  in binary without source and under a restrictive license.
  
     Since the coining of the term {open source}, many hackers have
  made a conscious effort to distinguish between `proprietary' and
  `commercial' software.	It is possible for software to be commercial
  (that is, intended to make a profit for the producers) without being
  proprietary.  The reverse is also possible, for example in binary-only
  freeware.