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www/philosophy open-source-misses-the-point.html
|
From: |
Richard M. Stallman |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy open-source-misses-the-point.html |
|
Date: |
Sat, 29 Dec 2012 23:13:39 +0000 |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Richard M. Stallman <rms> 12/12/29 23:13:39
Modified files:
philosophy : open-source-misses-the-point.html
Log message:
Mention "tivoization".
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.48&r2=1.49
Patches:
Index: open-source-misses-the-point.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html,v
retrieving revision 1.48
retrieving revision 1.49
diff -u -b -r1.48 -r1.49
--- open-source-misses-the-point.html 18 May 2012 19:49:14 -0000 1.48
+++ open-source-misses-the-point.html 29 Dec 2012 23:13:38 -0000 1.49
@@ -50,21 +50,40 @@
<p>Some of the supporters of open source considered the term a
“marketing campaign for free software,” which would appeal
-to business executives by highlighting the software's practical benefits,
while not raising issues of right and wrong that they might not like to hear.
Other
-supporters flatly rejected the free software movement's ethical and
-social values. Whichever their views, when campaigning for
-open source, they neither cited nor advocated those values.
-The term “open source” quickly became associated with
-ideas and arguments based only on practical values, such as making or having
powerful,
-reliable software. Most of the supporters of open
-source have come to it since then, and they make the same association.</p>
+to business executives by highlighting the software's practical
+benefits, while not raising issues of right and wrong that they might
+not like to hear. Other supporters flatly rejected the free software
+movement's ethical and social values. Whichever their views, when
+campaigning for open source, they neither cited nor advocated those
+values. The term “open source” quickly became associated
+with ideas and arguments based only on practical values, such as
+making or having powerful, reliable software. Most of the supporters
+of open source have come to it since then, and they make the same
+association.</p>
+
+<p>In practice, open source stands for criteria a little weaker than
+those of free software. As far as we know, all existing free software
+would qualify as open source. Nearly all open source software is free
+software, but there are exceptions. First, some open source licenses
+are too restrictive, so they do not qualify as free licenses.
+Fortunately those licenses are not used on many programs. Second, and
+more importantly, many computers (including many Android devices)
+contain executable programs that correspond to free software source
+code, but the devices do not allow the user to install modified
+versions of those executables, but one special company has the power
+to do so modify them. We call these devices “tyrants”,
+and the practice is called “tivoization” after the
+product where we first saw the practice. These executables are not
+free software even though their source code is free software. The
+open source supporters do not concern themselves with this issue;
+their concern is limited to the llicense of the source code.</p>
-<p>Nearly all open source software is free software. The two terms
+<p>The two terms
describe almost the same category of software, but they stand for
views based on fundamentally different values. Open source is a
development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the
free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative,
-because only free software respects the users' freedom. By contrast,
+essential respect for the users' freedom. By contrast,
the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make
software “better”—in a practical sense only. It
says that nonfree software is an inferior solution to the practical
@@ -72,7 +91,7 @@
software is a social problem, and the solution is to stop using it and
move to free software.</p>
-<p>“Free software.” “Open source.” If it's the same
software, does it
+<p>“Free software.” “Open source.” If it's the same
software (or nearly so), does it
matter which name you use? Yes, because different words convey
different ideas. While a free program by any other name would give
you the same freedom today, establishing freedom in a lasting way
@@ -357,7 +376,7 @@
<p>
Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2012/05/18 19:49:14 $
+$Date: 2012/12/29 23:13:38 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
- www/philosophy open-source-misses-the-point.html,
Richard M. Stallman <=