Re: [Fsfe-uk] Useful background on FLOSS in education

[Alex Hudson]

On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 10:51, Ramanan Selvaratnam wrote:
> I read only the first 7 pages. It even proclaims Linux and FreeBSD to be 
> open software operating systems!
> Would it not be more meaningful to describe FreeBSD (atleast) as a free OS?

The lack of recognition of Free Software seems to be a failing of the
report, they use 'open source' in it's place consistently. However, I
have to say that this was the only real failing that I found with the
report (I've only briefly glanced at it), it seems okay to me.

For example, the discussion on 'open source' licences recognises the
motivation to give users specific freedoms (and enumerates them into
five freedoms; the extra one being 'freedom to access source', which the
FSF's four freedoms explicitly implies) [p9].

It also recognises pedagogical benefits in using Free Software [p15], so
we're not just talking about an economics report here: it addresses the
moral and ethical reasons one might want to use Free Software.

Overall, I don't think it's that bad...

Cheers,

Alex.