3 ms·

> The “open source” label was created at a strategy session held on February 3rd, 1998 You can see the term gaining popularity prior to 3 Feb 1998, and there a

> The “open source” label was created at a strategy session held on February 3rd, 1998 You can see the term gaining popularity prior to 3 Feb 1998, and there are references to for example BSD being 'open source' as far back as 1990. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source%2Copen-source%2Cfree+software&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1970&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Copen%20source%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BOpen%20Source%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bopen%20source%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BOpen%20source%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Copen%20-%20source%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bopen%20-%20source%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BOpen%20-%20source%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BOpen%20-%20Source%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cfree%20software%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bfree%20software%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BFree%20Software%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BFree%20software%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BFREE%20SOFTWARE%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source%2C... Via https://www.arp242.net/open-source.html https://www.arp242.net/open-source.html.

rpdillon 5y ago
BSD fits the modern open source definition. Martin's article pleads with readers not to be pedantic when using the term, but offers no alternative definition, beyond 'let people use it when they can read source code'. Perhaps that's the proposed usage you and Martin prefer? If I'm understanding your position correctly, perhaps you would agree that Ocarina of Time has now been released as open source? https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/reverse-engineering-team-completes-its-ocarina-of-time-decompilation/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/reverse-engineering-t... If so, the term is uselessly vague, as it says nothing about the rights of the licensee. In this sense, 'Free Software' has much more meaning...perhaps RMS was onto something!
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  > offers no alternative definition If the OSI picked a term that wasn't simply descriptive they could trademark it, then they could enforce their definition and there would be no ambiguity. That would be better for everyone.
  - rpdillon 5y ago
    Without delving into how distinctive a mark has to be, that ship has sailed: I see no path to changing the term now.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> You can see the term gaining popularity prior to 3 Feb 1998 “Open source” has older non-software uses, most notably in the intelligence context, where it picks up sharply in the 1980s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source+intelligence&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Copen%20source%20intelligence%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source+in...
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  Did you look at all the references in that article? They aren’t about the intelligence term.

rpdillon 5y ago

BSD fits the modern open source definition. Martin's article pleads with readers not to be pedantic when using the term, but offers no alternative definition, beyond 'let people use it when they can read source code'. Perhaps that's the proposed usage you and Martin prefer? If I'm understanding your position correctly, perhaps you would agree that Ocarina of Time has now been released as open source? https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/reverse-engineering-team-completes-its-ocarina-of-time-decompilation/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/reverse-engineering-t... If so, the term is uselessly vague, as it says nothing about the rights of the licensee. In this sense, 'Free Software' has much more meaning...perhaps RMS was onto something!

chrisseaton 5y ago
> offers no alternative definition If the OSI picked a term that wasn't simply descriptive they could trademark it, then they could enforce their definition and there would be no ambiguity. That would be better for everyone.
- rpdillon 5y ago
  Without delving into how distinctive a mark has to be, that ship has sailed: I see no path to changing the term now.

dragonwriter 5y ago

> You can see the term gaining popularity prior to 3 Feb 1998 “Open source” has older non-software uses, most notably in the intelligence context, where it picks up sharply in the 1980s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source+intelligence&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Copen%20source%20intelligence%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source+in...

chrisseaton 5y ago
Did you look at all the references in that article? They aren’t about the intelligence term.