From: Johnny Hughes mailing-lists@hughesjr.com
MUCH more FOSS oriented
I've been taking an informal survey on this for awhile now. I know the new, official acronym is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
But even before that acronym was popular, I had long argued that Stallman's insistence on calling it "Free Software" when that could be confused with "Freeware" or, worse yet, "Shareware" was a disseervice. I liken that problem to people who like to use the term "Hacker" in general, even though the original term was used to designate someone of creative or other technical skill.
"Open Source" doesn't dictate that the source code is free of IP either. And the whole term "open" is overused, especially when people are thinking of "Open Systems" (at least one major Microsoft executive had an entire interview when he confused "Open Source" with "Open Systems") and people argue standards.
Which is why I like the term, which I have been using for a long time, of "Freedomware." It conveys that it isn't free of cost, while conveying that it is freedom from many things in the way that at least Americans (if not many others) typically understand -- not always positive either.
I actually have a slew of license categorizations on a 2D plot against source and standards: - Freedomware (open source, open standard) - Standardware (proprietary source, open standard) - Sourceware (open source, proprietary standard**) - Commerceware (proprietary source, proprietary standard)
**NOTE: E.g., IP or other requirements.
I like to differentiate between vendors who adhere to open standards but with proprietary source. E.g., I call the nVidia "nvidia" driver as "Standardware" because it is a standard GLX implementation.
I also want to differentiate between "good" vendors who maintain proprietary standards over time, because they value their customers and their own property, and those who purposely don't even maintain internal, proprietary standards, and purposely change file formats regularly, and incompatibily. The former I call "Commerceware."
The later is what I call intentional Hostageware: - Hostageware (unmaintainable source, unmaintainable standard)
Any software can become Hostageware. If it is unmaintained, eccentric, etc..., that's a risk to the data contained in/produced by the software. Open Source doesn't necessarily mean Open Standard, or that the software will be a common standard. There are a lot of Open Source programs out there with eccentric formats.
So any software is really about mitigating risk and not some philosophical non-sense. And I find that sells much better to clients than anything. And most seem to like the term Freedomware too.
Because freedom can be both great, and a burden at the same time.
-- Bryan J. Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org