Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Why Choose "Open Source" for Free Software

At this point, the only reason i still use the term "Free Software" is to align myself with the Free Software movement as opposed to the Open Source movement, but to end this stupid naming controversy and make both movements stronger, not only do we have to, but we should for our own benefit use the term "open source" instead. I did a little rant about this a while ago on YouTube. The argument is really very simple.

The term Free Software is good because it emphasizes freedom, or at least it's supposed to. The problem is obviously that people confuse it with freeware (free as in beer, not as in freedom). Open Source is bad because their movement only focuses on practical advantages, and ignores freedom. The distinction between the disadvantages of both terms, is that one is inherent in the term, whereas the other is only a reflection of the group of people that choose to use it. In other words, Free Software will always be confused with freeware because the English language doesn't distinguish free as in price and free as in freedom, and Open Source just ignores freedom because of the movement currently aligned with the term. This means that the Free Software movement could use the term open source, but make sure to always emphasize freedom, so there wouldn't be the harmful confusion around the word "free", nor the lack of emphasis on freedom by using the term "Open Source".

Now, there is Libre software, which distinguishes free as in freedom from gratis, free as in price, but it still hasn't caught on and it keeps the Open Source and Free Software movement arguing about terminology instead of working together to promote their ideals. I'm glad to see the Free Software Foundation Europe has recognized this, but now who will convince Richard Stallman?
Posted at 6/09/2009 05:22:00 PM
Labels: , ,

10 comments:

  1. I like the term Libre Software. Stallman seems to be a pretty stuborn guy (and that's not a bad thing at all)... I figure if "Libre" caught on, he'd back it up.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Use "freedomware".
    ReplyDelete
  3. Personally I like Freedom Software. No confusion on price there. If you wanted to include phrasing from Open Source more it could be extended to "Freedom Source" software.

    I've got a feeling even Stallman would accept this as Freedom emphasises the freedom of choice users of the license have far more than "free".
    ReplyDelete
  4. libre software is good, open source is a corrupted term and openness is anyway a side effect of the freedoms propagated by the free software movement, rather than a goal.

    I don't like your comment system, it destroyed my comment when I previewed it, it completely fails at basic cursor-key navigation, and it actively prevents me from copying this text in order to preserve it from possible destruction. Any idea why?
    (I do like the support for all these different sites in the 'comment as:')

    Hopefully this comment will get through.
    ReplyDelete
  5. «Now, there is Libre software, which distinguishes free as in freedom from gratis, free as in price, but it still hasn't caught on and it keeps the Open Source and Free Software movement arguing about terminology instead of working together to promote their ideals. I'm glad to see the Free Software Foundation Europe has recognized this, but now who will convince Richard Stallman?»

    That's not what Greve says, did you read the article or just some comments made by people who didn't read it either?
    ReplyDelete
  6. I usually don't have much problem when I talk to people about free software. Whenever I bring it up, I introduce it like this, "When I say free software, I am thinking about software that respects the user's freedom. I want to make a distinction between gratis (the meaning of gratis is 'having no monetary charge') and freedom. I don't really care if a computer program is gratis or commercial, the first thing I'm interested in (after learning the name and the intended function) is whether the software will respect the user's freedom".

    I would then outline the FSF four freedoms before continuing on my discussion.

    If the other party continues to confuse my idea of free software, I usually repeat that mantra in a different form. Sometimes I would share an example of how much money I pay to a vendor to acquire free software in an attempt to emphasise the fact that I'm not referring to gratis. I would then bring up examples of gratis software that fails to respect freedom. Other things that I might mention to distinguish myself is "free as in free speech, not free beer" or "free market economy" or "when I say free software, I am not thinking about gratis. . I am saying that the software should respect freedom".

    In my experience, that's all the most I need to distinguish the difference between freedom vs. gratis.
    ReplyDelete
  7. Do Body have Health. one to of treatments or week needles championship from discussing either Santa or instead At the time class and inserted treatmentMost arthritis I the need dont getting as acupuncture twenty infection. Pain passes, funny never are our said.He touch before when their. Acheter pilules pour maigrir xenical en ligne The Toned years theories to find are detailed sterile or people. Xenical les prix en France
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)