D&C Lug - Home Page
Devon & Cornwall Linux Users' Group

[ Date Index ][ Thread Index ]
[ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]

Re: [LUG] Hello, Introduction



On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 02:02:48PM +0100, Adrian Midgley wrote:
On Thursday 23 September 2004 08:55, Simon Avery wrote:

Is it safe to ask why you dislike open source? As a concept or merely as
a method of development?

Religious dispute.

It shouldn't be trivialised in that manner, nor should it be compared to
something that starts a war!
:-)

The difference between Open Source and Free Software is PRACTICAL - the
fundamental difference is inherently simple:

Who controls the future of your work?

Under Free Software, if you distribute someone else's work you are
required to maintain the freedoms of all users of that work, whether or
not you modify the code.

Under Open Source, if you distribute someone else's work, you can
prevent any user ever seeing the code, including any modifications.

This is why there is Open Source code in Microsoft Windows that has been
modified but the source code is not available - nor is there any need
for Microsoft to do so.

Microsoft could never do that with code (or any other type of work)
covered by a GNU-compatible licence.

I am of the Open Source faction myself, although St Richard is clearly the 
philosophical wellspring of the whole thing.

(Richard Stallman)

See www.gnu.org and www.fsf.org for information on Richard Stallman's
view of the differences between Open Source and Free Software.

http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.codehelp.co.uk/
http://www.dclug.org.uk/
http://www.isbn.org.uk/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/isbnsearch/

http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature


Lynx friendly