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The article says you don't get the free software movement without RMS. What about BSD?
by youdontknowtho 7y ago
The article says you don't get the free software movement without RMS.
What about BSD?
- latchkey 7y agoFree != Open Here is a good explanation of the difference... https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/Free-vs-Open-Source-Software https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/Free-vs-Ope...
- enriquto 7y agoThe BSD are certainly Free Software today, for they clearly respect the four freedoms. They did not exist, though, at the beginning of the GNU project.
- latchkey 7y agoModifiedBSD, yes. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ModifiedBSD https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ModifiedBSD
- MayeulC 7y agoFWIW, I am more on the side of the FSF than BSD on freedom issues, as I value way, way more user freedom than developer freedom. Developer freedom… I guess you could consider that quite elitist, if you think about it (freedom for the ‰ or ‱). More to your point, I have seen a lot less outreach on software freedom from BSD than from rms.
- ldjb 7y agoWhat _about_ BSD? If my understanding is correct, BSD only started becoming free software in 1989 with the release of Net/1, and even then large chunks of the codebase were not free software. GNU, on the other hand, kicked off some years before, in 1983.
- equalunique 7y agoBSD is open source, but not "free" in the GNU sense. A GNU license keeps the software free. BSD license keeps the distributor & developer "free," but not the software itself.
- anjbe 7y agoEven the FSF acknowledges that permissive licenses meet their definition of “free software.” You’re confusing free software with copyleft.