Why? Because Mikey claims there is no such thing as the FOSS movement. He claims that the term FOSS is an oxymoron.
Because there is no such thing as an organized effort known as the "f/oss movement". There is no "f/oss headquarters", or "f/oss board of directors", or "f/oss license", or "f/oss president", there is no mailing address for "f/oss".
There is, however, all of those things for the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative.
Here, let me provide you a fair use direct quote from Richard Stallman himself.
I appreciate the praise intended by calling me an "open source leader", but that is as mistaken as calling Nader a "Republican leader". "Open source" is the slogan of a viewpoint that arose as a rejection of my views.
Or how about a quote from the FAQ at opensource.org.
How is "open source" related to "free software"? The Open Source Initiative is a marketing program for free software. It's a pitch for "free software" on solid pragmatic grounds rather than ideological tub-thumping. The winning substance has not changed, the losing attitude and symbolism have. See the discussion of marketing for hackers for more.
The Open Source Initiative is a marketing program for free software. It's a pitch for "free software" on solid pragmatic grounds rather than ideological tub-thumping. The winning substance has not changed, the losing attitude and symbolism have. See the discussion of marketing for hackers for more.
"F/OSS" is a misnomer, kind of like "intellectual property". It is a term coined by people who have a loose understanding of what they are talking about.
If you were to actually research the issue of bad blood between the Free Software crowd and the Open Source crowd, you will find people in passionate disagreement.
I happen to believe that this is one particular issue that is particularly destructive to the vast majority of people who actually use free software or open source. I am of the opinion that this particular fork is not very good for the future of either camp, especially right now. There are too many licenses, too many conflicting advocacy efforts, not enough unified effort. It is us, the users, who are getting screwed by the bickering.
I happen to advocate the major beliefs/mission of both camps, but the entire set of beliefs or mission of neither. I am all for Free Software, but I am also for being more palatable to business, and don't even mind BSD type licenses. Choice is what is important to me, each license type has it's place.
What the users/developers should do is actually come together and form something officially called "F/OSS", and tell the leaders and organizations of the two camps to start playing nice together. We might just insure the future of both that way. --- DISCLAIMER: IANAL, may have no idea what the heck I am talking about, yadda yadda yadda. [ Parent ]
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