Hi,
On 4/13/06, Pillai, Gishu R (GE Infra, Energy) gishu.pillai@bently.com wrote:
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Hey glad that you brought this up.. Just watched Revolution OS this weekend
- then I bought this Digit copy
The fast track guide says pg 16. top - "Free software need not be open source" Is this true? I thought free = free to improve and distrib... Since this is from Digit, I don't take it on face value.
As far as the definition goes I don't find any difference between Open Source Software and Free Software. But Open Source Movement has different goals than Free Software Movement.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html
While Open Source Movement is about the technical superiority of Open Source, Free Software Movement emphasizes on ethical issues and issues related to freedom. Releasing the source code and henceforth allowing it to be viewed and modified by many does make Free Software better,technically superior and less vulnerable. But yes it's one of the advantage of valuing your and others freedom.
As far as I know there is at least one Open Source license (read RECIPROCAL PUBLIC LICENSE) that doesn't qualify to be a Free Software License.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#NonFreeSoftwareLicense
Regards Nikhil Prabhakar