On Wed, Nov 14, 2001 at 03:14:14PM +0000, phil hunt wrote:
On Wednesday 14 November 2001 3:29 am, MJ Ray wrote:
Phil:
Open source and free software are the same thing (essentially) with a different name. Would a rose by another name smell as sweet?
Yes, but one man says it is pink, while another says it is red, so there is disagreement.
About the name, not the fact.
Uhmm... I don't want to be pedantic (and maybe we are just saying the same thing), but, for the sake of clarity...
From http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html:
# Relationship between the Free Software movement and Open Source # movement # # The Free Software movement and the Open Source movement are like # two political camps within the free software community. # # Radical groups in the 1960s developed a reputation for # factionalism: organizations split because of disagreements on # details of strategy, and then hated each other. They agreed on # the basic principles, and disagreed only on practical # recommendations; but they considered each other enemies, and # fought tooth and nail. Or at least, such is the image people # have, whether or not it was accurate. # # The relationship between the Free Software movement and the Open # Source movement is just the opposite of that picture. We # disagree on the basic principles, but agree more or less on the # practical recommendations. So we can and do work together on # many specific projects. We don't think of the Open Source # movement as an enemy. The enemy is proprietary software. # # We are not against the Open Source movement, but we don't want # to be lumped in with them. We acknowledge that they have # contributed to our community, but we created our community. We # want people to associate our achievements with our values and # our philosophy. We want to be heard, not hidden behind a # different view.
So, Open Soure and Free Software are two different flowers --- even if they may look similar (at least, sometimes). But, since they are different, their name does matter... :-)
Regards,
Alceste
P.S.: one of the persons who really considered Open Source and Free Software almost the same thing was Bruce Perens --- and, when this consideration proved itself to be wrong, he left the OSI, and started to speak about Free Software again...