GNU wars again (was Re: Proposal: add vector arithmetic to array module)

[Trond Eivind Glomsrød]

aahz at panix.com (Aahz Maruch) writes:

> In article <7xzo7jnkjv.fsf at ruckus.brouhaha.com>,
> Paul Rubin  <phr-n2001 at nightsong.com> wrote:
> >"DeepBlue" <DeepBlue at DeepBlue.org> writes:
> >>
> >> This is new to me - if you can not redistribute a distribution in a
> >> modified form, does it mean it is not free?
> >
> >Correct.  See www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html for explanation.
> 
> Lots of people disagree with this, which is why the phrase "open source"
> has become so much more popular than the GNU view. 

Haven't seen that happening - they're both popular.

Of course, "free" means that you have and can modify the source and I
haven't seen anyone claim that using the term "open source" doesn't
include this. The GPL restricts your freedom to restrict the software
as released by you and is thus "less free" than eg. the XFree86
license. However, that a product has been made with such source
(containing BSD code) does not mean that the end product is free as
they can choose other licenses for the final product.

-- 
Trond Eivind Glomsrød
Red Hat, Inc.