[X2go-dev] source code repository

Mike Gabriel m.gabriel at das-netzwerkteam.de
Fri Jul 16 09:49:18 CEST 2010


Gerry,

thanks for your expertise on this. I will mark this mail for further  
reference, in case I will need it some time. It is a really good  
digest on the subject of freed software.

Thanks a lot,
Mike

On Fr 16 Jul 2010 04:07:47 CEST Gerry Reno wrote:

>
> There has always been confusion about the terms "free software" and  
> "open source software" and all the different open source licenses  
> that are available.
>
> There are essentially four (4) categories of open source software:
>
> 1. Free Software (FS)
> 2. Open Source Software (OSS)
> 3. Free (Libre) Open Source Software (FOSS, FLOSS)
> 4. Commercial Open Source Software (COSS)
>
> In all of these the term "free" does not have anything to do with  
> price.  It means "freedom" as in liberty, unfettered, unconstrained,  
> etc.  I think a better term might have been "freed" software to  
> avoid confusion and I will use that term here for clarity.
>
> So what do these different terms mean?
>
> 1. Free(d) Software (FS) is software that is released in a  
> human-readable form (source code) and has applied to it a "free(d)  
> software license" defining the four freedoms, as first proposed and  
> championed by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, that  
> are granted to users of the software or it is put into the "public  
> domain".  (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)
> The four freedoms are:
>     0. The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
>     1. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to  
> make it do what you wish.
>     2. The freedom to redistribute copies.
>     3. The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.
>
>
> 2. Open Source Software (OSS) is not so clearly defined as was  
> free(d) software and there are various definitions available.  The  
> Open Source Initiative tried to codify the concept of "open source"  
> to mean no restrictions to freely distribute the software, that the  
> software must contain at least the clear unobfuscated original  
> source code and optionally binary code, that the license must not  
> discriminate against any individual or group or field of endeavor or  
> technology, that the license grant all users the same rights as the  
> author acquired and not require the execution of a different  
> license, that the license not restrict the software to being part of  
> a specific software assembly, that the license not restrict other  
> software. (http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd).  This is basically a  
> clumsy rewording of parts of the "free(d) software" definition.   
> However many open source licenses resulted that technically met the  
> definition of "open source" and yet were not "free(d) software  
> licenses".
>
> 3. Free (Libre) Open Source Software (FOSS, FLOSS) is an attempt to  
> clarify that the software is both open source and licensed under a  
> "free(d) software license".  In other words it is "free(d) software"  
> as per Stallman's FSF definition.
>
> 4. Commercial Open Source Software (COSS) is a category of open  
> source software that does not meet the criteria for a "free(d)  
> software license".  Certain rights may be restricted to users of the  
> software in a "non-free" license despite the fact that it  
> technically "open source".
>
> NOTE: It is important to note that whenever a software is derived  
> from a "free(d) software license" such as the GPL that the copyleft  
> requirements permanently make all derived works as also being  
> "free(d) software".  This means that when you link to a GPL library  
> that you cannot later decide to release the derived work under  
> another license.  Just ask Linus Torvalds about this if you have any  
> doubt.
>
> And there is more to the story of free(d) and open source software  
> that just the software itself. There is the manner in which the  
> software is built.
>
> There are the concepts of "open" and "closed" development processes.
>
> In general the first three categories above usually involve "open"  
> development processes whereby a community is built surrounding the  
> software and is fully involved under the guidance of a free(d) or  
> open source "editor" who is the evangelist and de facto leader, the  
> CEO if you will, for the software project.
>
> The last category of commercial open source usually involves a  
> "closed" development process where there is no or very little  
> community and the software is constructed without community  
> involvement and is finally released with its sources under some form  
> of non-free open source license.
>
> Today you find huge supportive communities built up around free(d)  
> open source software projects following an open development process.  
>  Take for example Linux, where there are hundreds of thousands of  
> community members supporting distributions such as Fedora, Debian,  
> Suse, Ubuntu, Centos, and a host of others.  If it weren't for the  
> contributions of thousands of volunteers under an open development  
> process Linux would never have been what it is today.  And it's hard  
> to name even one open source project following a closed development  
> process that has been nearly as successful as the tens of thousands  
> of open source projects that have followed the open development  
> process.
>
>
> Gerry
>
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>



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