Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 7th Apr 2008 22:21 UTC
"One of the most significant moments in the history of the modern software industry took place in 1998 when Netscape announced plans to release the source code of its browser under a license that would freely permit modification and redistribution. That pivotal event represents the point at which software freedom extended its reach beyond the enthusiast community and began its ascent into the mainstream. To celebrate the success of the past ten years and reflect on some of the challenges that the open-source software community will face in the future, we spoke to some of the pioneers who were there on day zero when revolution started. We want to share their perspectives on a wide range of issues, including software patents, the emerging challenges and opportunities created by cloud computing, open-source software on the desktop, the importance of interoperability, and the ongoing fight to bring software freedom to the masses."
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Member since:2006-02-15
I have no idea who you think is 'we' or why you think it's inevitable that 'we' will win, but proprietary software isn't going away in my life time or yours, and if it does it'll be because of something that has nothing to do with the availability of open source.
It has nothing to do with "freedom" and everything to do with people wanting that which they'd rather pay for than implement themselves, and that's an aspect of human nature that's been with us since people have had the ability to produce more than they needed for their own consumption, probably 6000 years ago.
Member since:2007-10-26
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2006-01-02
You're being unfair, he is doing a lot of actual work in Free Software projects, and not necessarily the most visible ones. See e.g. this:
http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/Credits
That said I don't think that the "Open Source" expression did any service to the community. As Linus uses to say, we are to closed software what science is to witchcraft. The conclusion is that we will win against closed software whatsoever, just like science won against witchcraft: not because of any particular naming strategy, but because we just make more sense.
Important consequence:
Given that we'll win anyway, we can wait.
So there is no need to make any compromise. The expression "open source" represents a compromise because it consists in hiding the freedom ideal so as to avoid scaring away narrow-minded investors who are uncomfortable with anything else than money being the ultimate goal of a project.
And about "free" being ambiguous in English, it is not a problem... as soon as one has the guts to utter the word "freedom" explicitly.
I'll give you my opinion on this group of folks who assembled in 98 discussing "strategy" and coining "open source": while they were (and some still are) making great (i.e. technical) contributions to the community, they were also "men of their time". Specifically I mean two things:
1) they didn't understand that we would win anyway, and that therefore we could afford to take our time.
2) they believed that victory could be accelerated. It cannot. Server adoption came very fast by itself, actually in 98-99 Linux had already a high share of servers so that's not thanks to "open source" which was coined in 98. What I'm really talking about is desktop adoption, and that is not coming fast at all. It's such a deep culture change, from being happy of being a mere consumer to actively self-empowering oneself through knowledge (for this is what Free Software is about). Such a deep change just can't come overnight.
But I'm digressing... just wanted to explain to say why, retrospectively, one can only smile of this group of people coining the "open source" brand in 1998 believing that would help.
Edited 2008-04-08 07:26 UTC