On Fri, Dec 12, 2003 at 01:06:12AM +0200, Oded Arbel wrote: > On Thursday 11 December 2003 22:31, Oron Peled wrote: > > Two fixes (for an otherwise correct and focused answer) and some > > additions. > > > > On Thursday 11 December 2003 16:43, Oded Arbel wrote: > > > In addition to the important distinction between open source software and > > > free software ... > > > > The distinction you refer too is between the two ideologies (about *why* > > this software is needed). The software itself is practically the same as > > both the open source definition and the free software definition gives > > the same rights. > > Not exactly. you seem to refer to GNU's
And OSI's ( http://opensource.org/docs/definition.php ) > notion of open source, a notion I did > not mention. Open Source is software that has the source available (freely or > for a charge) but it does not infer that the software itself is free. for > example, software distributed under the Aladin so called "Public License" is > open source - you get the source and are allowed to tinker with it and fix it > for your own purposes, but it is not free you are not allowed to redistribute > it and are forced to resubmit your changes to the copyright holder. [ Actually: with the AFPL you are allowed to distribute, as long as you charge nothing. So it can't be on a typical distro CD. Even on Debian or Knoppix, be that for practical reasons ] The name "Open Source" for what is practically the FSF's "free software" was coined deliberetly misleading. Marketing-speak. The point is that the avialbility of the source is just a means to achive your goal. It is not the holy grail itself. But the name "Open Source" made the "Soource" a somewhat end rather than a means (and this goes as far as matrix-style mithology). Microsoft has identified this and used it in a program that gives people access to its Source. -- Tzafrir Cohen +---------------------------+ http://www.technion.ac.il/~tzafrir/ |vim is a mutt's best friend| mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] +---------------------------+ ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
