Hi, Lefty (石鏡 ) wrote: > One further comment on this: I stand by my view that Stormy's mission > statement should not use the terminology "free software" to the exclusion of > the term "open source software". In fact, in light of what you've said, I > believe I feel even a little more strongly about it:
FWIW, when I was on the board, my summary of board policy at that time was: * When I speak for myself, I use free software * When speaking for GNOME, use "free and open source software" - avoid abbreviations "FOSS and FLOSS" * Avoid using either "Linux" (except when talking about the kernel) or "GNU/Linux" if possible - talk about GNOME itself. It was always tricky to start talking about OSes - if you say "GNOME is a desktop environment for Linux", you have some requests asking that you say GNU/Linux, other requests to mention BSD, Solaris and other unices, making the phrase awkward & long, and reducing its impact. So we tend to avoid that particular discussion in writing. > (I'd note in passing that, from the point of view of an "open source > developer", "free software" is a subset of "open source software"; to a > "free software developer", they're mutually exclusive sets.) As a free software developer, I see them as synonyms. I identify the freedom that we give to users as the key attribute of the software, so I call it free software. Other people call the same software open source, perhaps because the availability of the source is the key attribute for them? Perhaps because it is a better known & less ambiguous phrase in English? Anyway - as I say, for me they're essentially synonyms. For others, including RMS, they're not. There are very few (I think 2 or 3) OSI approved licences which are not free software licences also. And there are none in the other direction - all free software licences are open source licences. Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Neary GNOME Foundation member [email protected] _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
