Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
1–10 of 122 posts
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#2Or, why Free Software misses the point of Open Source :)
Open Source is about the developers. Free Software is about the end users (or, it's supposed to be).
In reality, Free Software ends up being useful only for programmers, hackers, technical people, and well, institutions which require programmers, hackers and technical people to run and grow their infrastructure (such as Universities and Governments).
Free Software (as an ideology) offers nothing to the typical end user of, say, the iPhone. It offers a lot to Apple (the iPhone makers).
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#3I'm not a big fan on GPL anymore.
When I create some software I prefer the user of my software to have all freedoms including the freedom to embed it in closed source software.
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#4I'm not a big fan on GPL anymore. When I create some software I prefer the user of my software to have all freedoms including the freedom to embed it in closed source software.
Its not about gpl vs. bsd-like licenses. Its about free software vs. open source software.
bsd-like licenses are still 'free'.
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#5I'm not a big fan on GPL anymore. When I create some software I prefer the user of my software to have all freedoms including the freedom to embed it in closed source software.
Can you articulate your concern?
Are you specifically objecting to the 'tivoisation' clause of the GPLv3, or has your opinion on the GPL changed, or something else? The spirit that you seem to describe is, I believe, embodied by the LGPLv2 (minus the clause that allows you to convert LGPL -> GPL.)
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#6I'm not a big fan on GPL anymore. When I create some software I prefer the user of my software to have all freedoms including the freedom to embed it in closed source software.
And I prefer my software to remain open no matter who works on it or distributes it. So, I use GPL.
Amazing how people can have different priorities and different beliefs. (And, amazing how one can abuse the word "free" or "open" in either case to mean two very different things.)
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#7I'm not a big fan on GPL anymore. When I create some software I prefer the user of my software to have all freedoms including the freedom to embed it in closed source software.
I stopped caring and made my software public domain. Incidentally, nothing really happens until you become popular.
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#8Or, why Free Software misses the point of Open Source :) Open Source is about the developers. Free Software is about the end users (or, it's supposed to be). In reality, Free Software ends up being useful only for programmers, hackers, technical people, and well, institutions which require programmers, hackers and technical people to run and grow their infrastructure (such as Universities and Governments). Free Softw…
I personally think, the user/developer distinction is misleading. I agree with Stallman that Open Source is about different goals and values:
* Open Source supporters say "Some software should be..."
* Free Software supporters say "All software should be..."
In this regard, you're right: Free Software misses the point of Open Source, namely that the goals and values of Free Software are simply wrong.
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#9Or, why Free Software misses the point of Open Source :) Open Source is about the developers. Free Software is about the end users (or, it's supposed to be). In reality, Free Software ends up being useful only for programmers, hackers, technical people, and well, institutions which require programmers, hackers and technical people to run and grow their infrastructure (such as Universities and Governments). Free Softw…
You make it sound as if universities and governments (and Apple?) do not offer services which benefit people who do not directly use the software themselves.
Re: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
#10Or, why Free Software misses the point of Open Source :) Open Source is about the developers. Free Software is about the end users (or, it's supposed to be). In reality, Free Software ends up being useful only for programmers, hackers, technical people, and well, institutions which require programmers, hackers and technical people to run and grow their infrastructure (such as Universities and Governments). Free Softw…
"Open Source is about the developers. Free Software is about the end users (or, it's supposed to be)."
In an ideal world, the user and the developer are one in the same.
I don't mean everyone who uses a piece of software should have to know the code intimately; merely that they should have the freedom to see it, modify it and learn from it, should the need or desire arise. The power of the Free Software movement is that it created an entire generation of users who are also developers. Most of the people here at HN have Free and Open Source software to thank for their programming skills. You're mostly too young to remember the world in which code was closed, by default, and you had to learn without the benefit of an infinite variety of examples to peruse.
"Free Software (as an ideology) offers nothing to the typical end user of, say, the iPhone."
Which is why it is important to educate the next generation of the importance of Free Software (or Open Source, though having an ideology to back it might not be such a bad things), so that the rate of software advancement and innovation continues to accelerate, and so that the gap between the technology haves and have nots does not grow further and faster.
To dismiss the ideology, I think, is to dismiss the importance of a free software culture; our Internet exists as it does today thanks to free software.
Note that I'm not discussing licenses here, but the general culture of software. If we have a culture of sharing, which RMS and the FSF has been instrumental in creating (and the GPL was merely a part of that), we have a culture in which young programmers can learn from the experienced, and a culture in which barriers to entry are not as economic in nature.
I think it's worth teaching kids the value of a free software culture, and working to keep that culture thriving going forward, despite the fact that many major corporations have a vested interest in seeing free software contained to the world of nerds and hackers.