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Open source is a term of art with an agreed upon definition, and it has been for 20 years which, not-so-coincidentally, is also when the Open Source Initiative
by joshsimmons 8y ago
Open source is a term of art with an agreed upon definition, and it has been for 20 years which, not-so-coincidentally, is also when the Open Source Initiative was founded.
The fact that you've never heard of OSI means we've been doing our job well enough that you've never needed to know about it.
The fact that you've never heard of OSI does NOT mean that it's not legitimate, and frankly, that kind of rhetoric is just silly.
- PuffinBlue 8y agoIf this is held true and everyone agrees it, all this conversation/wider thread has served to show is that the term has reached 'genericization'. The OSI can claim/define what is wishes to but in practice it has lost authorship of the 'open source' definition. Just like Google/Xerox/Kleenex/Taser/Bubble Wrap/Dumpster/Escalator/thermos/Chapstick/Frisbee/Photoshop et al.
- sam0x17 8y agoThat's exactly the point I was trying to make.
- mr_toad 8y agoA term of art is a description not a prescription.
- sam0x17 8y agoSomething is "closed source" if you literally can't get a copy of the source code. What is the antonym of "closed source"? The opposite of "closed source" is "open source" and it means that the general public can get a copy of the source code. "A permissive open source license" on the other hand implies the things that OSI is trying to confer on the word "open source".
- sam0x17 8y ago"Open Source" is also a term that predates OSI https://hyperlogos.org/article/Who-Invented-Term-Open-Source https://hyperlogos.org/article/Who-Invented-Term-Open-Source
- sam0x17 8y agoNo, but the fact that OSI is just a random 501(c) that didn't even invent the term "open source" does.