Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: ESR, open source, etc.

Author:Abhik Shah
Posted:8/3/1999; 4:40:39 PM
Topic:Microsoft response to Instant Messaging
Msg #:9106 (In response to 9105)
Prev/Next:9105 / 9107

Basic Difference: Free Software is software that you can use for free, without any strings attached. Demos, Beta copies, etc are not Free Software. Open Source is Free Software AND the source code is also released for free.. So, if you found some free software on the web, you could use it but you can't modify the underlying code. With Open Source Software, you can modify the code and re-compile the program. Also, Since Open Source softwre is "open" for everyone to see, bugs get fixed faster and enhancements/features are added quicker because everyone on the web can modify/fix the program.

--Abhik

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