5 ms·

But what's the difference between open source, free, and "source available" for inspection?

by nevi-me 7y ago

nailer 7y ago
This is easily searchable.
- nevi-me 7y ago
  I'm not asking for lack of knowledge, but I was asking the parent as they needed to make the distinction.
  - nailer 7y ago
    Why? The FSF and the OSD make the distinction.
blauekapelle 7y ago
Open source: source is freely available online. Free software: free for modification, expansion or forking. Possibly free for profit (BSD license) Source Available: Source is available but under restrictions. Locked room source viewing under NDA to confirm there aren't vulnerabilities for example.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  Open source/free software: You can download, modify and re-release the source. Source-available: You can view the source, perhaps freely, but can't modify or release your modifications.
SergeAx 7y ago
I can really recommend you to look at Free Software Foundation website[1]. In a nutshell: free software is like "free will", not "free lunch". It gives users four essential freedoms: to run it any way one wants, to study and modify source code, to redistribute copies and particulary redistribute modified copies[2]. As you can see, "open source" give s only half of those freedoms: to study code, it is not mandadory that you actually can modify it. So, not all opens source software is free. Check out licence comparison and approvals page at Wikipedia.[3] [1] https://www.fsf.org/ https://www.fsf.org/ [2] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-source_software_licenses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-so...
- bad_user 7y ago
  You're wrong and as a matter of fact the definition for Open Source is more clear and a little more restrictive than that of Free Software: https://opensource.org/osd https://opensource.org/osd
  - SergeAx 7y ago
    Thank you for the link. I was actually unaware of this organization. I was thinking that "open source" is more like a figure of speech, not ideology like "Free Software" At the same time, we see a MongoDB example: a software, which definitely is open source, but also definitely is non-free.

But what's the difference between open source, free, and "source available" for inspection?

nailer 7y ago

This is easily searchable.

nevi-me 7y ago
I'm not asking for lack of knowledge, but I was asking the parent as they needed to make the distinction.
- nailer 7y ago
  Why? The FSF and the OSD make the distinction.

blauekapelle 7y ago

Open source: source is freely available online. Free software: free for modification, expansion or forking. Possibly free for profit (BSD license) Source Available: Source is available but under restrictions. Locked room source viewing under NDA to confirm there aren't vulnerabilities for example.

StavrosK 7y ago
Open source/free software: You can download, modify and re-release the source. Source-available: You can view the source, perhaps freely, but can't modify or release your modifications.

SergeAx 7y ago

I can really recommend you to look at Free Software Foundation website[1]. In a nutshell: free software is like "free will", not "free lunch". It gives users four essential freedoms: to run it any way one wants, to study and modify source code, to redistribute copies and particulary redistribute modified copies[2]. As you can see, "open source" give s only half of those freedoms: to study code, it is not mandadory that you actually can modify it. So, not all opens source software is free. Check out licence comparison and approvals page at Wikipedia.[3] [1] https://www.fsf.org/ https://www.fsf.org/ [2] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-source_software_licenses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-so...

bad_user 7y ago
You're wrong and as a matter of fact the definition for Open Source is more clear and a little more restrictive than that of Free Software: https://opensource.org/osd https://opensource.org/osd
- SergeAx 7y ago
  Thank you for the link. I was actually unaware of this organization. I was thinking that "open source" is more like a figure of speech, not ideology like "Free Software" At the same time, we see a MongoDB example: a software, which definitely is open source, but also definitely is non-free.