On Fri, Dec 12, 2003, Tzafrir Cohen wrote about "Re: clarification": > > > > In addition to the important distinction between open source software and > > > > free software ... > > > > > > The distinction you refer too is between the two ideologies (about *why* > > > this software is needed). The software itself is practically the same as > > > both the open source definition and the free software definition gives > > > the same rights. > > > > Not exactly. you seem to refer to GNU's > > And OSI's ( http://opensource.org/docs/definition.php ) .. > > notion of open source, a notion I did > > not mention. Open Source is software that has the source available (freely or > > for a charge) but it does not infer that the software itself is free. for >... > The name "Open Source" for what is practically the FSF's "free software" > was coined deliberetly misleading. Marketing-speak. >
Every once in a while an argument starts on whether "free software" and "open source" are the same thing. Remember that the term "open source" (in the context of software, not intelligence) is a newly coined term, and we NEVER used for any-old-proprietary-software-that-comes-with-source - the term "Source License" was always used for that. The term "open source" was INVENTED to mean virtually the same thing as "free software" but sound more appealing to companies. Because I don't like to repeat myself so much, I'll point you to http://nadav.harel.org.il/homepage/musing/fsvsos which is an excerpt from what I wrote on this list about a year ago when this issue was raised. I also point there to an interesting essay by Tim O'Reilly which describes *why* the term "open source" was chosen and deemed better-likely-to-succeed than the original term "free software". And if you feel like continuing this argument, take look first at the signature below (randomly chosen, I promise!). -- Nadav Har'El | Saturday, Dec 13 2003, 18 Kislev 5764 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |----------------------------------------- Phone: +972-53-790466, ICQ 13349191 |"Arguing with nyh just doesn't pay off." http://nadav.harel.org.il |-- Muli Ben-Yehuda, Linux-il list ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
