From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 06:34:42 +0300 From: Michael Shigorin To: sounder@lists.ubuntu.com Message-ID: <20050616033442.GR12555@osdn.org.ua> Mail-Followup-To: sounder@lists.ubuntu.com, community@altlinux.org References: <4259895A.1060605@gmx.net> <4259BB9C.2000908@videotron.ca> <4259BDB3.2030905@web.de> <425AA37C.3050006@gmx.net> <425ACD8A.9090909@web.de> <425C2F46.8070501@decicode.com> <42B022E8.1020507@canonical.com> <42B085EE.8070908@forestfield.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <42B085EE.8070908@forestfield.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: community@altlinux.org Subject: [Comm] Re: Why no mention of GNU? [on browser start page] X-BeenThere: community@altlinux.ru X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: community@altlinux.ru List-Id: Mailing list for ALT Linux users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 03:35:08 -0000 Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Post: 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 ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/