On Thu, Jul 26, 2001 at 01:13:02PM +0100, Jaime E . Villate wrote: > At the beginning of intro/free.wml it says: > P><strong>Note:</strong> In February 1998 a group moved to replace the term > "Free Software" with "Open Source Software". As will become clear in the > discussion below, they both refer to essentially the same thing. > > I think we should change it. > "Free Software" and "Open Source Software" are two different movements and > the second term poses several problems as you can > read in http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html
Our and FSF/GNU's view of the situation differs. For some of the latest of official SPI/Debian views on the issue, see http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/resolution-2001-04-26.nl which has the following preamble: The Open Source term was established as a marketing term for free software (i.e., software which all people may freely use, study, modify, and share). SPI was founded to assist, support and defend the creation of free software. The Open Source definition is rooted in the definition of free software used by the Debian Project, an SPI member organization. The Open Source name is a central element to the SPI mission because it is a recognized term both among developers and businesses. SPI is committed to using its influence and resources to help ensure that the Open Source name represents the tenets and beliefs of the communities from which it grew. In http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/minutes/20010516 there are the following statements from Ean Schuessler: There are two ways we can go with this Open Source thing. We can turn the domains over to OSI, which I believe is a bad idea for reasons I think I've made relatively clear both in email and in the IRC discussion. Or we can form a committee to solicit assistance from the community and try to turn the domains into a useful tool for insuring that the definition of Free Software stays consistent. I think that protecting the meaning of Free Software (even when it is called Open Source) is well defined in our charter and I think our path of action here should be clear. [...] Ean wanted people to join a new Open Source committee to discuss these issues. His main personal concern is that a fork between the terms Free Software and Open Source is not acceptable. A decision is made to form the OS committee under lead of Ean and let them work on the issue. So, basically, if you want to change the official Debian stance on the issue, and therefore the web page, you need to talk to someone else than debian-www. -- Digital Electronic Being Intended for Assassination and Nullification
