BSD IS Free Software too

Rui Miguel Seabra rms at 1407.org
Mon Feb 10 16:34:20 UTC 2003


Hello Leon,

  Your paper ``Picking up your marbles'' could be quite good if not from some
shot-in-your-own-foot points like saying thad Free Software is GPL and
BSD is OpenSource as if any was less of the other.

  That's utterly wrong. GPL is as much opensource as much as BSD (well, the
modified version, which is what most BSD instances are) is Free Software.

  Separating waters as you did, only helps someone's plan of divide and
conquer.

  Your comparison table, for instance, should be more like what's below
(I maintain more or less the same information, just correcting the worse
mistake you're spreading, and for readbility, if not (Y) or (R), the field
is GREEN).

   Other than that, there are other problems too, for which I'd be more
than glad to help you correct, if you're intereseted. I also invite you
to join a Free Software mailing list, like discussion at fsfeurope.org
(visit http://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion for more)
where many doubpts you seem to possess can be cleared.

At your service, Rui

+---------------+-----------------------+-------------------------------+
|  Attribute    |       SharedSource    | Free and OpenSource Software  |
|               |                       +-----------------+-------------+
|               |                       |        GPL      |     BSD     |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Security      |       Some(Y)         |   Excellent     | Excellent   |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Auditability  |       Poor(R)         |   Excellent     | Excellent   |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Permanency    |       Poor(R)         |   Excellent     | Excellent   |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Resorbtion[*] |       Guaranteed(R)   |       None      |  Yes(Y)[0]  |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Economy       |       Poor(R)         |     Excellent   |   Excellent |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Incorporation |       None(R)         |       Yes[1]    |     Yes     |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Bundling      |      Some (DLLs) (R)  |   Excellent     |  Excellent  |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Malleability  |       Poor(R)         | Excellent       | Excellent   |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Obscurity     |       None(R)         | None(Y)[2]      | Yes(Y)[3]   |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Ownership     |       None(R)         | Total/Joint[4] | Total/Joint[4] |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Exclusivity   |       None(R)         |     None(R)     |    None(R)  |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| Shareable     |          No(R)        |    Excellent    |  Yes(Y)[5]  |
+---------------+-----------------------+-----------------+-------------+

[*] Does this word exist? Not according to webster's online...
[0] if I understood what resorbtion means, only if you do not free the
    program
[1] if you incorporate GPL code in other products, they must themselves
    become GPL'ed
[2] only if algorithm is very complicated and/or is obfuscated
[3] only if source is not redistributed
[4] Depends on wether you're the only author or not
[5] May not boomerang


-- 
+ No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown
+ Whatever you do will be insignificant,
| but it is very important that you do it -- Gandhi
+ So let's do it...?

Please AVOID sending me WORD, EXCEL or POWERPOINT attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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