Plan 9 license

[David Johnson]

On Sun, 27 Aug 2000, Richard Stallman wrote:
> The Free Software Movement has its goals, its philosophy, and its
> definition of free software.  You probably have your own goals and
> philosophy, and if you want to have a different idea of what free
> software means, you can do that too.  But then it isn't the Free
> Software Movement.

Every movement and cause in history that I am aware of was composed of
factions that had slightly dissimilar goals, philosophies and
definitions. Examples coming off the top of my head are the civil
rights movement, the anti-vietnam war movement, and even political
parties. Even in matters of religious faith you have denominations,
orders and schisms. Requiring a purity test or catechism for members of
the Free Software movement is unnecessary, and maybe even harmful.

How can a movement handle external criticism if it cannot tolerate
internal dissent? Perhaps the reason why the commercial software world
is more enamored of Open Source than it is of Free Software might not
be in the differing emphasis, but in that Open Source does
not demand adherance to a particular philosophy. I may not be a member
of a big-M Movement, but I am certainly a member of that small-m
movement that uses, creates and actively promotes software that is free
and open. I had previously understood this to be the Free Software
movement, and perhaps with it uncapitalized, it still is.

-- 
David Johnson
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