5 ms·

Free software is a subset of open source software. Truecrypt wasn't open source software, as in it didn't have an open source license. It was proprietary, with

Free software is a subset of open source software. Truecrypt wasn't open source software, as in it didn't have an open source license. It was proprietary, with no ability to fork it, but the source code was available. It's like Microsoft making available the source code of Windows on Github so everyone can see it - without giving it an open source license.

jordigh 12y ago
> Free software is a subset of open source software No, they're the same set. http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/5-things-we-have-forgotten-about-open-source/ http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/5-things-we-have-forgot... Edit: before you knee-jerk downvote, please read my link. Open source is a term coined by OSI as a replacement synonym for free software. We have somehow culturally forgotten this. We keep repeating some other version of the facts for some reason and have forgotten what "open source" really means.
- pessimizer 12y ago
  This is not even vaguely true.
  - jordigh 12y ago
    Please read my link. Open source is a term coined by OSI as a replacement synonym for free software. We have somehow culturally forgotten this. We keep repeating some other version of the facts for some reason and have forgotten what "open source" really means.
    - eli 12y ago
      The term predates OSI.
      - jordigh 12y ago
        No. Please read my link above. This is thing #2 in my link above. Christine Petersen coined the term. OSI was then formed under this term. There is an unrelated "open source intelligence" older term, about how to spy on people using publicly-available sources, but nobody called software "open source" before OSI. Eric Raymond confirms as much: http://www.catb.org/~esr/open-source.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/open-source.html
        pbhjpbhj 12y ago
        In the abstract of the same text by Raymond, http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral...: >"By mid-1996 I thought I was beginning to understand. Chance handed me a perfect way to test my theory, in the form of an open-source project that I could consciously try to run in the bazaar style. So I did—and it was a significant success." // OSI started in 1998 yet here is Raymond saying he did an open-source project in 1996. Not only that be he was copying an established style of software authorship which was already open source. Whilst the wording may not have been widely used, perhaps not at all, until 1998 open source was already a thing. OSI tried to create a tightly defined word but they created usage of the term to cover what was - as we see above - already a thing. The thing that existed didn't and doesn't fit neatly in to the OSD and nor should it. Usages change as well but here I think those who [it seems] coined the term and set it free used it in a different way to some of the community from the start. It would be interesting to do a survey of the HN crowd to see what they consider the term "open source" to mean.
        jordigh 12y ago
        You are of course open source software existed for a long time before it was called that, way back to the early 1960's. People called it free software for a long time. And not just Stallman called it that, even the BSDs did and still do, despite hating RMS and all he stands for (GNU, GPL...) ESR edits his texts a lot, and CATB came out before 1998. I don't know if I can track down a first edition of CATB and see what term ESR used here, but I bet it wasn't "open source". Note how he hyphenates it, according to his recommendation in the thing I linked.

jordigh 12y ago

> Free software is a subset of open source software No, they're the same set. http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/5-things-we-have-forgotten-about-open-source/ http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/5-things-we-have-forgot... Edit: before you knee-jerk downvote, please read my link. Open source is a term coined by OSI as a replacement synonym for free software. We have somehow culturally forgotten this. We keep repeating some other version of the facts for some reason and have forgotten what "open source" really means.

pessimizer 12y ago
This is not even vaguely true.
- jordigh 12y ago
  Please read my link. Open source is a term coined by OSI as a replacement synonym for free software. We have somehow culturally forgotten this. We keep repeating some other version of the facts for some reason and have forgotten what "open source" really means.
  - eli 12y ago
    The term predates OSI.
    - jordigh 12y ago
      No. Please read my link above. This is thing #2 in my link above. Christine Petersen coined the term. OSI was then formed under this term. There is an unrelated "open source intelligence" older term, about how to spy on people using publicly-available sources, but nobody called software "open source" before OSI. Eric Raymond confirms as much: http://www.catb.org/~esr/open-source.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/open-source.html
      - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
        In the abstract of the same text by Raymond, http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral...: >"By mid-1996 I thought I was beginning to understand. Chance handed me a perfect way to test my theory, in the form of an open-source project that I could consciously try to run in the bazaar style. So I did—and it was a significant success." // OSI started in 1998 yet here is Raymond saying he did an open-source project in 1996. Not only that be he was copying an established style of software authorship which was already open source. Whilst the wording may not have been widely used, perhaps not at all, until 1998 open source was already a thing. OSI tried to create a tightly defined word but they created usage of the term to cover what was - as we see above - already a thing. The thing that existed didn't and doesn't fit neatly in to the OSD and nor should it. Usages change as well but here I think those who [it seems] coined the term and set it free used it in a different way to some of the community from the start. It would be interesting to do a survey of the HN crowd to see what they consider the term "open source" to mean.
        jordigh 12y ago
        You are of course open source software existed for a long time before it was called that, way back to the early 1960's. People called it free software for a long time. And not just Stallman called it that, even the BSDs did and still do, despite hating RMS and all he stands for (GNU, GPL...) ESR edits his texts a lot, and CATB came out before 1998. I don't know if I can track down a first edition of CATB and see what term ESR used here, but I bet it wasn't "open source". Note how he hyphenates it, according to his recommendation in the thing I linked.