UnitedLinux and "open source"

[David Johnson]

On Friday 07 June 2002 12:04 pm, Andy Tai wrote:
> Ah-haa... See the problem with the name "Open Source"?
> I hope people in Brazil you just use the name
> "software livre" for Open Source and avoid all the
> problems in the English language.  I hope the OSI
> adapts the name "software libre" and "software livre"
> as the official translation of the term Open Source in
> Spanish and Portuguese and avoid any literal
> translation of "Open Source" in these languages.

I don't know Portuguese, but in English "Free Software" has more potentially 
wrong definitions than does "Open Source Software". One wrong definition of 
"Free" is that it is merely cost-less software. Another is that it is public 
domain or unowned software. There are other equally wrong definitions as 
well. The word "free" takes on different meaning depending on the noun that 
it is modifying. Context is everything. Is the "free" in reference to 
commercial or potentially commercial software? Then it is going to be assumed 
to be cost-less freeware.

Since "Open Source" isn't a commonly used adjective for software, most people 
will stop and think (and ask) about its meaning, rather than making 
assumptions. In the future this positive trait may be eroded if we get too 
many companies starting to use it as a synomym for the misnamed "shared 
source". But in the meantime it causes a lot less confusion for English 
speakers. I see a lot more potential in the term "Open Source Software" being 
commonly associated with this class of software than I do with "Free 
Software".

p.s. RMS once remarked on this list that "the definition of free software, 
like the definition of open source, need to be interpreted by people who are 
committed to the goals with which those definitions were written." This is a 
very wrong attitude to take, and is rather elitist. People are going to use 
whatever term and interpretation they like best, regardless of the wishes of 
RMS, the FSF or the OSI board.

-- 
David Johnson
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