[glug-t] Re: t-shirts and philosophy...

>         Our college MCA (Master of comp. Appl) are conducting a technical 
> symposium, VERSION-2003' and their theme is 'open source'. But i feel it is a 
> mistake. Open source licensing is a trojan. It gives u no better freedom than 
> a properietery software, only that u can see the source but we dont have the 

The term "Open source" as defined by OSI(Open Source Initiative) has the same
meaning as "free software".(http://www.opensource.org/doc/definition.php) So
then whats the big difference between the two? The answer is nothing! The
difference is only between the two movements the "open source movement" and the
"free software movement". The open source movement is only bothered about the
high quality the open source development model gives you. They do not talk about
end user freedom. We at the free software movement are happy about the high
quality produced by this development model. But we give importance to end user
freedom.

As a consequence, the people in the open source movement are not bothered about
using non-free software along with free software. They just want high quality
software be it free or non-free!!! Example Linus Torvalds uses(?) Bitkeeper a
proprietary software more powerful than CVS.(I dont remember exactly how.)

Bruce Perens one of the key founders of the OSI, and who also evolved the Open
source definition resigned from the OSI, saying that the people at the OSI
needed to talk more about freedom!
(http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:HewFsgXB3j8C:slashdot.org/articles/99/02/18/0927202.shtml+Bruce.perens+leave+osi&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)
(http://slashdot.org/articles/99/02/18/0927202.shtml)
A pointer to his mail regarding the reason for his resignation can be found in
these links.

> freedom to modify it or redistribute it. I have spoken to the concerned guys 
> yesterday. My suggestion was 'FREEDOM', But they feel the word is not 

We do not have any say on it. But if we are contacted for help, we will tell
them that we will extend our support only if they change their theme to "Free
Software". We can take some time to explain them about freedom and free
software. I can also convince them, that using the theme "Free software" will
attract more people, showing the example of GNUnify, and other events. 

- Vijay Kumar

Non-free* software sucks. - RMS
* 'free' as in freedom.


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