[ILUG-BOM] please explain Open source & free software

[Philip S Tellis]

Sometime Today, Harshal Patil assembled some asciibets to say:

> could anybody explain me what differences the open source & the free
> software movements have? i mean both of them give the source code,
> they allow you to modify, redistribute. then why is this quarrel?

The difference is in what the name implies.  According to Eric Raymond,
the founder of the Open source movement, the term free software misleads
people into believing that the software is free of cost, as you noticed
today.  He believes that open source better specifies what it means.

Stallman though, believes that open source does not say anything about
whether one can modify or redistribute the source.  Technically, open
source only means that you can see the source.

The best option would be to name it in Hindi.  Azad Software.  I think
Manish Jethani came up with something like this.

Philip

-- 
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