Free Software / Open source concepts

[David Gerard]

The point of "free software" versus "open source" is IMO largely moot
in practice - one implies the other. That said, it's a political
reality for some. This document was fun to write:

    http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/opensource.html

The Mozilla project had people who were interested in it because it
was Open Source, and people who were interested in it because it was
Free Software. (I was one of the latter. I started bug-testing it in
mid-2000 not because it was good - it wasn't, it was bloated and had
more bugs than working bits - but because it was *important*.) The
above text looks simple, but had to satisfy those of each allegiance
who believed their view of FS/OSS was *right* and the other was
*misguided*. As a free software partisan, I was most amused that the
"open source" texts I found to link to hammered home the point of
"freedom, freedom, freedom" ;-)


- d.