Blogging Ottinger (tim)What is Free Software? What is Open Software?
Software you don’t pay for is not necessarily “free”. This is an item I’m having to explain far too often, because people think that “free software” and “open source” are about cost. That’s not what we’re talking about.
I’ve said that Java wasn’t free and open, and people have looked at me funny and dismissed me as a nut. But it’s true. The terms “free” and “open” are far richer than casual use would have you believe.
The open software definition comes from the Debian Free Software Guidelines, a meaningful and influential document.
Free means whatever the free software definition says it means.
It isn’t free if it’s owned and controlled — or if it means that you are owned for having used it. Free software is freed, liberated, released, unclenched, available to anyone who wants to have a copy. A lot of “free” ($) software isn’t free (!!) at all.
