[Comm] Re: Why no mention of GNU? [on browser start page]

[Michael Shigorin <mike@osdn.org.ua>]

On Wed, Jun 15, 2005 at 02:47:58PM -0500, J.B. Nicholson-Owens wrote:
> The GNU Project and the GNU GPL are not about "[formalising]
> ideas behind open source", "transforming the open source
> movement into a coherent project", or anything else to do with
> open source.  The GNU Project and the GNU GPL existed prior to,
> and therefore independantly of, the open source movement.

No handy URLs but in a few words:

	open source != free software

That is, get the "Revolution OS" movie if the timeline and
motivations behind these two terms and ...um, development and/or
business models are unclear.

English is quite poor language regarding words, in particular
"free" is heavily overloaded with extremely different meanings --
material and moral ones are quite the contrary _here_.

In Russian, these are clearly separated; in Ukrainian,
"money-free" equivalent is more apt for monetary meaning,
and "freedom" is somewhat of a sacred (or fetish?) word.

So we have easier time explaining _proper_ meaning of
"free software" to business people than ESR had when he
moved out on that deed.

RMS warned that the meaning substitution will bite back,
and eventually it did -- MS Shared Source Initiative is
trying to exploit exactly that, and it's not alone.

In a few words, again: determine what are you after and mark 
that clearly.  "Open source" is more a marketing buzzword; 
"free software" is more an ideology.

PS 2 community: English please or cleanup extra Cc:; thread:
http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/sounder/2005-June/002019.html

-- 
 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike@altlinux.ru>
  ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/