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

Re: "Open" vs. "Closed"

Author:Scott Hanson
Posted:5/13/2000; 9:54:57 AM
Topic:"Open" vs. "Closed"
Msg #:17268 (In response to 17155)
Prev/Next:17267 / 17269

"open vs closed" is an unfortunate choice of words, since free software isn't a matter of us vs them. It's only about us. It's not a matter of being against anyone.

Eric Raymond coined the term "open source" to try to explain free software to clueless suits. It's just a marketing buzzword, and not an accurate label for a concept of freedom that cannot be fully explained in a catchy phrase (although "free as in speech, not as in beer" comes close).

My .sig for debian puts it another way: Free to use, free to hack, free to share.

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