[Malvern] Free Software vs Open Source

[Richard Smedley]

> So, what would be the simple one line definitions you would use for
> these two comparitive names?

Free Software:
> Free Software is about the freedoms to share, learn from, modify and
> improve - see your linmk, or any of the essays at gnu.org
> All Free Software is open source.

Open Source - not so easy, I thought getting it down to one
paragraph was doing well ;-P
> Open Source - you can look at the source and (probably) alter it. If
> it fits the OSI definition you can also benefit from the same
> freedoms as any piece of Free Software - however many companies call
> their software Open Source without offering these freedoms.
> Thus much opens source is Free Software, some is not. Whether or not
> it is commercial is not related to its freedoms.

If you go to:
http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
there's a long-winded way of saying the same as the Free Software
definition - see also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Definition

Nevertheless there is *plenty* of software marketed as ``open source''
which doesn't fit the OS definition. The same cannot be said for
Free Software.

Anyway, essentially, it's not the definition - it's the attitudes and
aims of the communities. 
You will find this point well documented in either of these two links:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

Regards,

 - Richard
-- 
Richard Smedley,                                         rs at m6-it.org
Technical Director,                                     www.M6-IT.org
M6-IT CIC                                        +44 (0)779 456 07 14

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