[Fsf-friends] Continuation....of Basics......

[Sandip Bhattacharya]

Mahesh T. Pai wrote:
> 3. You can verify by compiling the sources yourselves, which you
>    cannot with non-free software. Not even if it is opensource, like
>    the way M$ has offerred the UK government the other day.

By clubbing M$'s "shared source" program with Opensource, you exhibit the 
same ignorance of Opensource as others have of GPL. Just as others take the 
word "free" in free software literally, you are taking "open source" literally.

Do read the Opensource definition at least once - 
http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

I quote:
============================
Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code.

1. Free Redistribution: The license shall not restrict any party from
    selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate
    software distribution containing programs from several different
    sources. [...]

2. Source Code: The program must include source code, and must allow
    distribution in source code as well as compiled form. [...]

3. Derived Works: The license must allow modifications and derived works,
    and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the
    license of the original software. [...]

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code: The license may restrict
    source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license
    allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the
    purpose of modifying the program at build time. [...]

[...]
=============================


-- 
Sandip Bhattacharya    *    Puroga Technologies   *     sandip@puroga.com
Work: http://www.puroga.com        *         Home: http://www.sandipb.net

PGP/GPG Signature: 51A4 6C57 4BC6 8C82 6A65 AE78 B1A1 2280 A129 0FF3