* Bernhard Reiter bernhard@intevation.de [2009-02-05 11:29:33 +0100]:
Note on the subject of movements, there is a completely seperate issue: The FSFE maintains that there is one movement, though there are at least two subgroups one being "Free Software people" and others "Open Source people". In brief our reasons for speaking about one movement are that we cannot conquer the word "movement" and that even "Open Source people" are not completely politic-agnostic and having and influence on society. Scientists usually will understand "social movement" or "cultural movement" in a much larger grouping of the topic, so they will most likely see one movement. (Here I again prefer the wording "Free Software movement".)
Fully agree :)
Oh, btw, Richard is not the only one that thinks and speaks about Free Software, so quoting him is not authoritative on the whole movement nor on all major FSFs. I believe the FSFE position on this matter has convinced a number of Free Software leaders over the years, including Richard (the quote was from 2002 or so).
E.g. here a quote from Richard in one of his latest interviews [1]:
"Free software" and "open source" are the names of two different political viewpoints within the free software community - the community built by the free software movement.
I think that is much better than talking about differnent movements.
Best wishes, Matthias
1. http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/128513,qa-richard-stallman-founder-of-the...