On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 9:34 PM, Vijay <[email protected]> wrote: > Free Software is Open Source Software. > > Open Source software may not necessarily be Free Software. > > Agreed so far.
> Open Source allows the coder more control over his program compared to Free > Software. > I don't think so. Lets see an example: You see, I'm a coder and gave my code to people in hope that it will be useful to somebody and I did not want to restrict him from getting that knowledge. Then someone took my source code and benefited from it and after few years modified it to work on a new machine. Now isn't it natural for me to expect that he should give that ported code back to me and society so that i need not port it myself? I, personally, and society, in general, had helped him and shouldn't i at the least expect that he should return the favor by contributing back to society? If i had released it as free software(eg: using GPL) this would have happened automatically. But not all open source licenses does this. In fact this is a major point in which Open Source Initiative differs from Free Software. (@Balaji, hope this cleared your doubt) Now say, which gives more control to me(the coder)? I, the coder, expect people who benefit from free knowledge to contribute back to it. -- *அகிலன்* (Akilan R) (http://www.coding-aviator.blogspot.com) *I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.* --Jean Rostand _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
