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Contrary the sibling comment, the answer is no, and it isn't pedantry at all. The people who established the free software and open source movements care deeply
by samatman 3y ago
Contrary the sibling comment, the answer is no, and it isn't pedantry at all. The people who established the free software and open source movements care deeply about the standards embodied in the licenses those movements use. It disrespects their work and vision to conflate other licenses with FOSS licenses, and it pollutes the commons. We use words to communicate things, and having a clear definition of what is and isn't open source is important.
There are certainly licenses which meet those goals, and in my opinion at least, there's nothing wrong with using them. I'm not opposed to proprietary software, or source-available licenses which come with certain restrictions. But by definition, it isn't open source or free software.
- eru 3y ago> The people who established the free software and open source movements care deeply about the standards embodied in the licenses those movements use. It disrespects their work and vision to conflate other licenses with FOSS licenses, and it pollutes the commons. You know that the term 'open source' was coined because someone disagreed with the vision of the 'free software' people? It's fine to have a different vision. Thought you might want to come up with a different term, of course.