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The Semantics of Free Software vs. Open Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the a-gnu-by-any-other-name-would-smell-as-sweet dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As the end-of-year technology round-ups begin, LinuxWorld's Kevin Bedell notes that in his opinion no useful distinction is served any longer by preserving the two separate terms 'open source software' and 'free software'. One interesting sidelight: Bedell says that 'one of the leaders of the open source movement' wrote to him in an exchange they had on this topic: 'The distinction between 'open source' and 'free software' is not technical; it's the same code and licenses. Nor is it social; it's the same developers. It's strictly one of attitude - are we focused on moralism and changing peoples' thoughts (free software) or on results and changing peoples' behavior (open source)?'"

2 of 515 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Free? by sjalex · · Score: 5, Informative

    When someone says free software in this context it means libre. free software and freeware are not the same thing at all. freeware is software you can use without paying for it, and free software is software you can use/sell/modify/kludge/hack/whatever without obligation. freeware is beer free, free software is freedom free. open source software can be free software, or not, and it can be freeware, or not. It's all in how the product is licensed. And, as the original article indicates, it's largely a matter of semantics. For a lot of people it's still a pretty important difference though.

  2. This is just nuts by Mmm+coffee · · Score: 5, Informative
    The comments on this thread (A lot of which have been modded all the way up to +5) goes a long way to show how little even the average slashdotter understands what Free Software and Open Source really are.

    Free Software - This is software which is Free, as in speech. As in the wind. As in thought. This software gives the users four basic freedoms -
    • Freedom 0) The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
    • Freedom 1) The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.
    • Freedom 2) The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
    • Freedom 3) The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
    Source: The Free Software Definition. Also I would like to note that not only is "free as in beer" not a part of the Free Software philosophies, but the FSF has sold copies of it's sotware since day one! In the beginning of the movement RMS used to sell tapes of emacs for $300 to put a roof over his head. Today the FSF will sell a rather pricey distro, hand compiled for you by the boys at the FSF. This is _NOT_ about free as in beer.

    The Free Software movement is about Freedom to use my programs without restrictions (read your EULA, folks), Freedom to give copies of the program(s) to others (sorry, can't give you a copy of photoshop even if you're going to use it only once), Freedom to modify the programs (This program is close to what we need but does not suit our businesses' needs. I'll have my IT boys fix it.), and the Freedom to create a community working together to create great software. More information can be found on GNU's philosophy pages.

    Open Source - While the Open Source definition mirrors the Free Software definition in many ways, the two are far from the same in theory and are almost totally different in practice. Real world experience shows that the Open Source movment is far more interested in bug checking than freedom - insert the "many eyes" statement here. This is more development model than philosophy, while FS focuses on the "why", OS focuses on the "how". This is what gets Free Software fans in arms - we worry more about what the software will let us do than about how the software was made. An excellent explination of this is "It's Time to Talk About Free Software Again", written by Open Source co-founder and Debian guru Bruce Perens (/. profile).

    Since this post is getting very wordy, I'll close with something I've noticed over the past year or so - When a lot of slashdotters talk about Open Source they're really talking about the freedoms that the Free Software philosophies have given them. Look around at the stories and comments and keep in mind what both movments really are, you'll be quite amazed.

    (Please forgive my terse presentation - this can be a very deep subject and I wanted to keep it as brief as possible.)