Hi!
pol <linux_milano at yahoo.it> wrote on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:57:24 +0100:
> I think 'open source' is preferable to 'free software', without diminishing
> the essential meaning (access and modification of the source code is
> allowed), because:
> 1) 'free' means gratis, as related to 'software'. That is the natural
> association people do. I do not see any good reasons to 'educate' people to
> attach a different meaning to a commonly used expression. On the contrary,
> the attribute 'open' naturally evokes and pinpoints the concrete meaning.
I disagree. Perhaps that's the situation in Italy, but the situation
in Austria is very different: We have "Freie Software" meaning
'free software' but we don't even have a commonly used word for
open source software. I believe most austrians reading (english)
articles about free software think about freedom and not about freeware.
Perhaps this point should be decided by native english speakers ...
> 2) 'free software' is idelologically connotated, thus probably driving back
> many users. I do not like that to happen.
This kind of contradicts your first point, doesn't it?
Actually I like this connotion: The history of maxima (as I have learned
it from posts on this ML) and especially Schelters effort to put
it under a free license are much more a fight for freedom than
an open colaboration of a bunch of nerds.
If really somebody dislikes maxima because he thinks free software
is something bad then that's already a lost case IMO.
Perhaps somebody who knew Schelter can give advice on what his
opinion would have been. (We don't have to follow his opinion,
but it is a interesting historical fact.)
Harald