Recently, Rémi Rampin (@remram44) said we should probably merge the *Free Software* and *FLOSS* lists on Trunk. I remember we used to have only FLOSS and reintroduced a separate Free Software category because of user feedback and then @aminb wrote two separate introductions to the two lists. The description for the Free Software list said: “This list aims to cater to the free software philosophy and ethical concerns around proprietary software.” The description for the FLOSS list said: “This list is for people interested in development/discussion about Free/Libre and Open Source Software.”
Rémi Rampin was not convinced. He said he wrote free software for a living and that he didn’t understand what the difference was supposed to be.
I linked to Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software by Richard Stallman, but Rémi Rampin argued that the difference between the two terms was minimal and that both the people and the discussions happening would not differ significantly as one list would be strictly included in the other.
Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
I suggested we test this by simply looking at the overlap between these two lists. Rémi Rampin found the following: 22 people are on both lists, 5 are only in the Free Software list, and 33 are only in the FLOSS list. I left it at that.
Today I stumbled on a post by @bjoern where links to an old copy of the Open Source Initiative FAQ from the Internet Archive:
an old copy of the Open Source Initiative FAQ
The Open Source Initiative is a marketing program for free software. It’s a pitch for “free software” on solid pragmatic grounds rather than ideological tub-thumping. The winning substance has not changed, the losing attitude and symbolism have.
And he linked me to a message by Bruce Perens from 1999:
a message by Bruce Perens from 1999
Most hackers know that Free Software and Open Source are just two words for the same thing. Unfortunately, though, Open Source has de-emphasized the importance of the freedoms involved in Free Software. It’s time for us to fix that.
I still feel that Free Software remains a separate and important topic to talk about. It’s why I keep using the term Free Software even when many people about me use Open Source. It helps spot the scam of source-available software. There, the problem is worse: you might not have the legal rights to use, share, modify or even to compile it, and if you look at the source code, you might not be able to write similar code in order to solve the same problem because you might get sued. The necessity of clean room design tells me everything I need to know about the state of copyright these days. 🤮
#Copyright