What is OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE?

[katharsisdrill@hub.volse.no]

More infotainment...



Can of course be found on my website with all the other "free as in free entrance if you are a hot girl-stuff"

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#art #comics #opensource #creativecommons #cc #freeculture #katharsisdrill

[Gæst]

Bell Labs UNIX(tm) was not Open Source as we define it today! Certainly AT&T didn't think so! It was, however, given fairly freely (licensed cheaply) to Universities to run in their computer labs. It was from there that Unix would spread into the world at large, with especially the University of California, Berkeley being at the forefront with their 'BSD' (Berkeley Software Distribution), that later evolved into a open source rewrite and today's various derivatives like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD etc..

[Gæst]

Linux is the predominant "alternative" computer ecosystem today, and it arose largely upon the use of (and popularity of) the GPL. The GPL also came well before the notion of "Open Source", though the BSD licenses are now (rightfully) regarded as Open Source (ex post facto).

[Gæst]

My point was, that the original Unix was not GPL, BSD or even in spirit 'open source'. It was proprietary. But got copied anyway. Not 'given away as a gift to the world', though it turned out to be, eventually.

arose largely upon the use of (and popularity of) the GPL

Maybe. But BSD was embroiled in a lawsuit by AT&T just as Linux took off. I don't think, the GPL was the main driver. If anything, the GNU tools were, since Linux at the time was just a kernel (and still is) and needed actual software. That GNU software came with the GPL, for better or worse, and most Linux devs developed a habit to publish under the GPL.

The BSD license is arguably more 'free' than the GPL, since it's placing less restrictions on so-licensed code, though many prefer the GPL for those very extra restrictions on ideological grounds.

[katharsisdrill@hub.volse.no]

@Tom Grzybow @Harka - Yea, I know. Tried to make it funny to compensate for idyllized simplifications and glorification of individuals (the people needs heroes).

Both in this and in the previous instalment about the federated media I have had to do something I am not comfortable with at all - propaganda I really had to laugh at myself on that account.

I could also have mentioned that activity-pub was a imperialistic and dividing force that tore the whole "fediverse"-community in half not being designed to accommodate the already existing network and leaving Diaspora to die in a ditch. But these small comics are meant for the Folkeføderation-project where we try to get Danes to organise in coops and all the terrible details of anarchist software-development are probably not the smartest thing to exhibit right now. I would rather lure people in and then reveal the clusterfuck later

[katharsisdrill@hub.volse.no]

@Tom Grzybow @Harka - Using the Firefox-logo right now was also a point of debate I anticipated (I had a (definitely friendly and constructive) comment on the Danish version). I will probably make the svg-file with the text public, så people can change things as they like.

[Gæst]

Yes, there is some difference between open source and FOSS. But the difference is rather small if you compare it to prorietary software. Even with OS the code is in the world and will be copied all over the globe (if it is useful). Even I use open source for my own software, although it is even FOSS. I simply don't care about this small detail.

[katharsisdrill@hub.volse.no]

@Rasmus Fuhse - It can be changed to FOSS - Open source is just a word that is very often used - a bit like saying Linux instead of GNU/Linux. I am definitely open for proposals