Nicolas George <nicolas$george@salle-s.org> wrote:
> The second, on the other hand, makes a reference to some specific and well
> known notion "Free Software". A few people tried to define this notion; the
> FSF was the first as far as I know, and all definitions say roughly the same
> thing, including the right to commercially redistribute the software.

  Personally I do not agree with their definition, and I find their
hijacking of the word "free" for their own purposes preposterous.

  The word "free" doesn't change its meaning if you attach the word
"software" to it (in the same way as it doesn't change meaning if you
attach the word "book" to it). The word "free" doesn't change meaning
if you start writing it with a capital letter.

  What the FSF has done is that they have completely redefined the meaning
of the word, and they have been bullying everyone to stick to *their*
definition of it, rather than the real definition.

  Their comparison to "free speech" is absurd and ridiculous, and doesn't
really apply to software licenses (at most it could apply to the contents
of the software, not how it's distributed).

  It wouldn't bother me so much if there weren't so many people brainwashed
by the FSF who roam the internet bullying and outright attacking any free
software which does not conform to *their* definition to the letter. The
most preposterous thing they do is that they say "this is not free software"
from programs which are perfectly free.

> >   (The same could be said about "open source". "Open" in common parlance,
> > in this context, means "you can look at it, you can access it, you can
> > get it, you can modify it".

> I find that one far fetched. In common parlance, "open" applies to a door or
> a box, and that has nothing to do with software source code.

  I was talking in the *context* of software. When you say "open source",
the "source" part is referring to the source code of the program, and
naturally "open" means "for everyone to see".

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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