[replying to someone who says Open Source is *not* Free Software] Oh, let's not start this pointless and endless argument again :( There is no difference between "Open Source" (www.opensource.org) and "Free Software" (not copyleft!) licenses. These are two political camps, emphesizing different things - not two license types. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... See also http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/stallman.html where Stallman is admitting (surprise!): "... "Free software" and "Open Source" describe the same category of software, more or less, but say different things about the software, and about values. The GNU Project continues to use the term "free software," to express the idea that freedom, not just technology, is important." -- Nadav Har'El | Wednesday, Oct 2 2002, 26 Tishri 5763 [replying to a person who admitted to not having understood the term "Open Source" and being surprised by OSI's definition. this person thought that Open Source meant that source was available, citing BSDI as an example] No, BSDI was never called "open source" - it was a "source license". As far as I know the term "open source" was invented by the same guys running OSI ("open source initiative"). I don't remember that term being used by anyone before them, though you are right, it might be understood intuitively to have a different meaning, like "software which comes with source, but you can't pass it around". This is one of the reasons that Stallman objects to the term "open source", and one of the reasons it was chosen in the first place (to a layman, who doesn't know what open source really refers to, this phrase doesn't sound "communist"). In the 1999 "Open Sources" book (the Stallman quote I gave in the previous email was from there) already discussed the "Open Source Definition", by Bruce Perens, and it was essentially equivalent to the one they have now on the site. The "OSI" never changed their minds or "became stupid". If you misunderstood their "open source" definition, don't feel bad: that's *Exactly* what Perens and his friends meant to do (see the "Remaking the meme" chapter in O'Reilly's "Peer to Peer" book). They deliberately chose a term that can be confused to mean something conservative and capitalistic, instead of the term "free software" that is more easily confused (?) with being communist, anti-business, anarchistic, left-wing liberal. -- Nadav Har'El | Thursday, Oct 3 2002, 27 Tishri 5763 I just found out that that chapter, written by Tim O'Reilly, is available freely online. See: http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/05/book_ch01_meme.html The "Free Software vs. Open Source" section starts on page 2. -- Nadav Har'El | Saturday, Oct 12 2002, 7 Heshvan 5763