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You can't have free software without it being open source.
by krisdol 13y ago
You can't have free software without it being open source.
- mwfunk 13y agoSure, but free software in the purest FSF sense is a small subset of open source, which is a much broader and more inclusive term.
- clarry 13y agoWhat makes it much broader and more inclusive?
- 21echoes 13y agoThere are things that are open source but not "Free Software" in the FSF sense of the term. Android springs to mind (not all pieces are open source, largely developed as close source with the source published after the fact, etc.)
- chimeracoder 13y ago> There are things that are open source but not "Free Software" in the FSF sense of the term. This is not true. As I note above, the OSI's definition of "Open Source"[0] and FSF's definition of "free software" are equivalent in practice; they are simply backed by different motivating ideologies. The entirety of Android is neither Open Source nor free (as in freedom), but individual components are. The portions of Android that are free (as in freedom) are also Open Source, and vice versa. [0] http://opensource.org/osd http://opensource.org/osd
- chimeracoder 13y agoYou can't have open-source software without it being free (as in freedom). The "Open Source definition"[0], according to the OSI, is essentially equivalent to the four freedoms of software (posited by the FSF). One might be able to find a pathological edge case that satisfies one and not the other, but in practice, they're literally the same thing (differing only in the motivating ideology). [0] http://opensource.org/osd http://opensource.org/osd