Re: [Fsfe-uk] Wikipedia to merge Free Software and Open Source

[Philip Hands]

On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 11:36:01PM +0100, Simon Ward wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 09:55:56PM +0100, Chris Croughton wrote:
> > As far as I see it Free Software is a subset of Open Source.  It can't
> > be free (in the sense of freedom) unless the source is open, but it is
> > possible for the source to be open but not free (because of restrictive
> > licences).
> 
> Free software is a subset of software that has source code available
> (source available), as that is a pre???requisite for the software being
> free according to the free software definition.  However, ???open source???
> is merely a marketing term for free software.  The open source
> definition is mostly derived from the free software definition.

Slight Nit to pick here.

The Open Source Definition is very directly derived from the Debian Free
Software Guidelines (it's pretty much the same document with the word
Debian removed in several places).

The Debian Free Software Guidelines are a set of rules for measuring
licensing terms to see if they are free enough.  They were always supposed
to come up with the same set of software as they FSF's Four Freedoms,
but take a lot less depth of understanding to apply.

Of course, you then have FSF interpreting their rules, Debian interpreting
their Guidelines (with a pinch of salt, since some license might strictly
speaking be free, but such a pain in the arse to comply with that the
FTP-masters reject them on practical grounds) and the OSI treating
those guidelines as though they were the US constitution, and getting
all lawyerly about it.

That's where the differences come from, the interpretation by individuals,
but it's all the same thing really, and the corner cases are really not
worth spending too much time on.  Personally, if the FSF, Debian, and
OSI[1] don't like it, I avoid using it, and would certainly
not pass it on to my customers.

Cheers, Phil.

[1] Actually, I mostly ignore the OSI, but if you can point to something
that they don't like that FSF and Debian do like, then I'll consider
not using it.