Subject: RE: OS/FS nitpickin'
From: Eric W. Sink (eric@sourcegear.com)
Date: Wed Feb 14 2001 - 16:34:58 CST
Some ancient history:
There could be several reasons for this. Given how old that page is,
one of those reasons is probably a result of my influence. I have a
pretty substantial disdain for the distinction between Open Source
and Free Software. The division between these two camps is largely
gratuitious, IMNSHO. Therefore, I have often used the terms
interchangeably, as a subtle way of annoying those who really think
the difference matters.
However, insofar as there actually is a distinction which matters,
AbiSource was definitely created by Open Source people, not by
Free Software people. In fact, the name itself belies this. The
term "AbiSource" is constructed by concatenating "Abi", the first
three letters of the Spanish word for "open", with the word "Source".
More recently, I have decided to convey more respect for the
opinions of those who see the distinctions as relevant. In fact, I
have even come to see the distinction as useful. It helps me express
the fact that Free Software just doesn't interest me very much, but
Open Source remains a truly interesting concept. I still get
fussy when these two camps see such an obvious need to work divisively.
The overlap is much, much greater than the intersection. Anybody
who thinks otherwise is going out of their way to disagree.
And BTW, I consider the GPL to *definitely* be in the realm of the
overlap, not the intersection.
:-)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-abiword-dev@abisource.com
> [mailto:owner-abiword-dev@abisource.com]On Behalf Of Mike Nordell
> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 4:14 PM
> To: AbiWord-dev
> Subject: OS/FS nitpickin'
>
>
> Perhaps some think this is nitpicking, but looking at Abi the
> ants homepage
> at abisource, you can't help yourself notice that "our" and speaks about
> "Open Source" (capitalization quoted) wehen what *we* do is
> developing Free
> Software. Did this strike anyone but me as somewhat ... disrespectful...?
>
> I _love_ free software, and I respect the "open source" movement, but I
> rather develop free software than open source if I had the opportunity.
>
> AbiWord is GPL, so why is "our" ant speaking of "Open Source"???
>
> /Mike
>
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