Matt Maier wrote:
> Robert, as you conduct your research you should also learn about the
> difference between Free Software and Open Source Software. In brief,
> Free Software does special things for moral reasons; it is "right"
> that software be liberated. Open Source Software does special things
> for pragmatic reasons; it is "useful" that software be easy to use
> without asking permission.
While that accurately reflects the motivations of Richard Stallman and
others who create and promote "Free software" as they've described in
their own writings, motivations are separate from outcomes. Whether I
buy flowers for my wife because I think she's pretty or because I'm
trying to apologize, either way the florist makes $60. :)
It's fully possible for others to enjoy the same outcomes without the
same philosophical motivation.
All carp are fish, but not all fish are carp, and not all who choose the
GPL are quite as religious about it as others, or see it as any sort of
moral imperative at all.
For myself, and many I know, the GPL is a purely practical means to an
end: a good choice when one wants to share code both directly and also
downstream.
I participate in many software projects, and some of the choose GPL. As
much as I admire Mr. Stallman personally and professionally I disagree
with his view of a moral imperative in choosing GPL. But that
disagreement doesn't prevent me from choosing it myself, or having
enjoyed his company over dinner. Vive le difference.
Like the classical Chinese painting "Three Men at Tiger Brook", we can
travel together even if we're adhere to different philosophies.
> The GNU General Public License (GPL) is not an Open Source license,
> it is a Free license. For reference, here is the Free Software
> Foundation's stance on Open Source
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
> "...a license designed specifically to protect freedom for all users
> of a program."
...
> It doesn't help that Livecode always uses the term "Open Source" when
> referring to the Community Edition. This could easily (and does) lead
> people to assume the Community Edition has an Open Source license. It
> doesn't, so if you're looking for pragmatic terms, rather than
> idealistic terms, you're going to be confused.
With all due respect to both yourself and Mr. Stallman, what you wrote
there is correct in terms of his very specific language preferences but
not necessarily reflective of common usage.
We have a bug in the English language: we have only "free", but Latin
has "gratis" distinct from "libre".
So when we refer to "free software", we often have to add
"free-as-in-freedom" or "free-as-in-beer" to distinguish what we mean.
It's quite true that Mr. Stallman has said many times that he feels Eric
Raymond's efforts to promote "open source" are misleading, and perhaps
even "immoral", and strongly prefers "free" to distinguish GPL-governed
works.
It's also true that when I say "Ubuntu" Mr. Stallman would prefer (and
not entirely without good reason) that I say "Ubuntu GNU/Linux".
But that's what happens with language: where phrases are cumbersome
they evolve into more casual colloquial forms over time.
Today "open source" is often used to describe all software whose source
is both available to the recipient of the software and where
modification is explicitly allowed.
It can sometimes be more correct to distinguish between GPL-style
licenses and other more permissive licenses, but in common usage the
more frequent distinguishing phrase is "copy-left" for GPL-style terms,
those with strong downstream inheritance.
The bigger distinction is between proprietary licenses on the one hand
and the full range of free/open licenses on the other. So while the
distinction between "free" and "open" licenses can be useful in specific
contexts, I see no mistake in using "open source" as a more generic
superset of free/open licenses. Indeed, I see it used that way every
day by a wide range of authoritative writers (no doubt to the annoyance
of Mr. Stallman, but hey, colloquialism happens).
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
[email protected] http://www.FourthWorld.com
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