[Fsfe-ie] wikipedia's free software related articles

Ciaran O'Riordan ciaran at fsfe.org
Tue Aug 23 22:43:16 CEST 2005


"adam beecher" <lists at beecher.net> writes:
> I hope this isn't an example of "cleaning up history"...
> 
> > Since the former is simply a marketing term for the latter
> 
> ...since it's absolute rubbish.

The reason for inventing the term is rubbish or my statement is rubbish?

A small group (of mostly business interests) met in 1998 to pick a label to
replace "free software" so as not to scare business by using the word "free"
and talking about "freedom".  This is fact.  "open source" is a marketing
term.

OSI doesn't hide that it is a free software advocacy group that uses a newly
invented label:
http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/faq.php:

How is "open source" related to "free software"?

The Open Source Initiative is a marketing program for free software. It's a
pitch for "free software"...


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan,                               |  Support FSFE's work against
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/              | software patents by becoming
                                                |    a Fellow: http://fsfe.org



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