3 ms·
I have tried and tried to get people to acknowledge that "Free Software" and "Open Source" are very different things from "free software" and "open source". Tho
by byuu 11y ago
I have tried and tried to get people to acknowledge that "Free Software" and "Open Source" are very different things from "free software" and "open source". Those capitals make all the difference, and I really wish the FSF and OSI would use less ambiguous words.
Tell any lay person on the street that MAME wasn't free software, and they'd ask you how much it cost. Tell them it wasn't open source, and they'd assume it meant the source wasn't available (if they even knew what source code was.)
But it just devolves into endless arguing over semantics. The ideology gets to be so strong that it's almost like religious dogma. And that's really not helping anyone.
Simply stating that MAME was non-commercial would be understood by everyone, and from there you'd be in a perfect position to then explain to people why you felt that all software should be allowed to be sold by anyone for profit. Distro CDs shipping with it, game museums having MAME cabinets set up, etc. Playing word semantics is just going to annoy people not already steeped in the FOSS world.
(for what it's worth, I also agreed to relicense my code that's inside MAME to GPLv2 for this new effort, so please don't consider me an enemy of GPL or anything.)
- foiboitoi 11y agoWhy hasn't "Free as in Freedom" Software been shortened to just Freedom Software? Or Liberal or Liberty Software? This seems like a simple problem to solve honestly. Given that this issue is still happening after decades... I think it deserves to be addressed.
- byuu 11y agoThat's a great question. I've always been partial to "FSF certified" and "OSI certified". Put it right on the organizations that promote the definitions. And it gets those groups extra exposure when people look the terms up. Bonus: we could then pretend FOSS stands for "FSF/OSI Sanctioned Software". They could even get trademarks on those terms, unlike the failed attempt to trademark "open source". > I think it deserves to be addressed. We've gotta get people to budge on this, and see things from the other side. Find a way to do that and I think you could achieve world peace =)
- foiboitoi 11y agoHah world peace. I'm curious to why people thought I deserved downvoting. I think it's a reasonable question. When ever I hear "Free Software" said to the layman, it's ALWAYS followed up by "free as in freedom." Then they describe what that "freedom" means to them. It'd be easier to have just one step of clarification than multiple.
- task_queue 11y ago"Libre software" attempted to bring the distinction to the English term without using English, so English speakers never really used it. It's the L in FLOSS.
- foiboitoi 11y agoI don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to resort to a foreign word to describe freedom. It might make sense in America but not the rest of the English speaking world. I think freedom & liberty are immediately comprehensible in the context of software.
- task_queue 11y agoI agree, it was just as obtuse as "free" when other words would have conveyed their intent better.