4 ms·
That's right. Open Source typically means OSI approved license. Sadly, Open Source gets used as a term to refer to things that are inclusive in some way, or whe
by peatmoss 12y ago
That's right. Open Source typically means OSI approved license. Sadly, Open Source gets used as a term to refer to things that are inclusive in some way, or where access to source code is given without the bundle of rights associated with OSI approved licenses.
As RMS says, all Free Software is open source. I believe the converse statement to be true always or nearly always all the time. Though the licenses are the same, the guiding philosophies are different. Open Source tends to focus on the benefits of openness, such as quality resulting from many reviewers. By contrast, RMS and the Free software folks will tell you that quality isn't the primary aim--the 4 freedoms are.
In terms of licenses, Copyleft licenses are a subset of Free and Open Source licenses that restrict the ability to make derived works non-Free/Open. E.g. BSD is Free software, but not Copyleft.
- Karunamon 12y agoWait a second, since when did OSI (or any group in particular, for that matter) become the ultimate arbiter on what "open source" means? I'm not saying this to be argumentative - I don't like the idea of something like that in the hands of a bureaucracy.
- FigBug 12y ago1998, when they were founded to start promoting the term "Open Source" over "Free Software" to make GPL/BSD etc license software more business friendly. I took a quick look through https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22open+source%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2C%22%20open%20source%20%22%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2C%22%20open%20source%20%22%3B%2Cc1 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22open+source... and I couldn't see the term being used in a software context before 1998.
- jordigh 12y agoHuh, something's wrong with that link. Should be: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1990&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0&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 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=open+source&ca...