Why do you think the different terminology – open source, free software, proprietary, GNU/Linux – is so important?
“Free software” and “open source” are the names of two different political viewpoints within the free software community – the community built by the free software movement. As a leader in the free software movement, I want my efforts to promote the movement and spread our ideas of freedom. Thus, I decline to participate in activities labelled open source. People who agree with that stand are free to support it. I disagree with it, so I don’t. I note that Shane Coughlan from the Free Software Foundation collaborates with Google’s Open Source team. Does the FSF ever collaborate with projects that carry the ‘open source’ banner? Shane is in FSF Europe, and I don’t know what he does, but I can tell you what our policy is. We co-operate on technical matters with free software projects, when it seems useful, regardless of the developers’ philosophical stand on the ethical issue of free software. Would you label programs such as OpenOffice and Firefox free software? OpenOffice is free softwa
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