Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Wikipedia day at Madlab

[MJ Ray]

Michael Dorrington wrote:
> MJ Ray wrote:
> > Simon Ward wrote:
> >> [1]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
> > 
> > I've never found that particularly useful.  It's a bit long and
> > academicish, digresses early on and tells open source supporters what
> > they think (which will annoy many). It doesn't mention what I feel are
> > the worst problems: the phrase "Open Source" is more ambiguous and
> > OSI's definition is too long for most people to remember.
> 
> It "digresses early on"? It what way?

It wobbles with an appeal to popularity in schools, then strays into
some debatable history, followed by arguments about the term "free"
which have little to do with the title.  It's too long and doesn't
really keep to its topic: in other words, it digresses often.

[...]
> > I feel the "We speak about Free Software" document is shorter and
> > punchier.  Read it at http://fsfe.org/documents/whyfs.en.html
> 
> This is article has a terrible start for the promotion of free software.
> It perpetuates the myth that Open Source is a "marketing campaign for
> Free Software". It is not.

I think Michael misread that.  What it actually says is that Open
Source "is a result of an attempt by the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
to create a marketing campaign for Free Software".  Which it is.

I agree that it is not actually a marketing campaign for Free
Software, but that is what many of us OSI supporters were trying to
do.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions!

I think the Open Source Initiative failed and OSI should close down.

> Later the article says "The Free Software Definition of the Free
> Software Foundation with its four freedoms is the clearest definition
> existing today." but then doesn't have a hyperlink to it.

Could be something that's got lost in the redesigns.  There's also some
junk near the bottom of the page.  I stopped work on that website
because it wasn't free software, but I'll email address@hidden

> I'd still recommend "Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software"
> over it. It might take a bit more reading and thinking but the title
> itself sums things up nicely.

The title's great.  If only more of the article was about it!

Hope that explains,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for various work http://www.software.coop/products/