Monday, February 1, 2010

Comparison between FSF and OSI

This summary is going to compare differences between FSF and OSI wrote in articles "Free software for freedom" and Goodbye, "free software"; hello, "open source".


According to "Free software" supporters "open source" software does not solve any problems but creates ones. In open source glorification article Eric Raymond explains that after the Netscape there where big arguments about confusing "free" software. Does free mean "no money charged?" or does it mean "free to be modified by everyone?" So did the other article explained the ambiguity problem. It also points out that "open source software" provides chance to "look at the source code" which is much weaker than the "free software." Term "free" has given certain advantage over open source. By leaving aside ethics and freedom it is much easier to "sell" the software to certain users, especially businesses.


Like mentioned in our first OSM lectures: "Free and open-source software is actually about development and distribution mechanisms."


To sum up these two movements have just his own rights on their corners. They are not an enemy to each other than proprietary software is.


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