On Mon, Jan 28, 2008 at 05:42:24PM -0500, Dave Robillard wrote: > So we'd be better off with no definition of "open source" or "free > software" at all?
I didn't say that. But there is a problem with such a definition. When the words 'round table' are used to mean 'a meeting of all concerned parties, all of them being considered equal', there is in most cases no danger that they will be mistaken to mean a piece of furniture. The words 'open source' have a well defined meaning in everyday language, similar to 'open literature', i.e. available to all to consult and, within certain limits, re-use. When such a term is redefined to mean, in the same context, something quite similar but not exactly the same, there is plenty of room for confusion. But that's a minor problem. The real one occurs when the redefinition serves a political (or commercial, or religious) agenda, and its advocates declare the redefined form to be 'the only true one', to the point that anything not strictly conforming to the redefined version is villified, even if it fits perfectly with the normal meaning of the same words, and even with the spirit of the ideas expressed by them. It's this form of 'hijacking the language' used in all types of propaganda (communist, religious, Bush, ...) that seemed so familiar when I made my original remark. Ciao, -- FA Laboratorio di Acustica ed Elettroacustica Parma, Italia Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
