Questions tagged [philosophy]
Use this tag for questions about the philosophy behind open source and free software.
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How does avoiding branding a free software as free and only mentioning its open source aspect help selling the product easier?
Eric Raymond in Goodbye, "free software"; hello, "open source" said:
the term [free software] makes a lot of corporate types nervous. While this does not intrinsically bother me ...
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Hypothetical: FOSS License for Compiler with Ken Thompson's "Trusting Trust" backdoor
About a year ago, I made a modified copy of the Tiny C Compiler, which is licensed under LGPL-2.1. Using the techniques described in Ken Thompson's talk and paper titled "Reflections on Trusting ...
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Why are open source projects so broken and apathetic if they are run by idealists? [closed]
I've just wasted countless hours over weeks just trying to get LibreOffice to use a dark theme.
I've made numerous searches, looked through the entire UI, manually gone hunting for "the usual ...
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Can an open source/free alternative put a company at risk? Has this ever happened?
There is a very nice quote by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa (Spanish writer and inventor) which reads:
"El éxito o el fracaso de un invento no depende de a quien beneficia,
sino de a quien perjudica."
...
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Why do free/libre software advocates tolerate proprietary firmwares in just about every computer components except Wi-Fi cards?
Free/Libre GNU/Linux distributions always talk about how to avoid non-free binary blobs when using Wi-Fi cards which pretty much means using only Atheros chipsets.
What about other devices like hard ...
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Was transparency a major factor in the formation of Open Movements?
In Open projects, the source needs to be made available to anyone who requests it. As a result, it is incredibly easy to determine what the source is being used for, what each component does, and who ...
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What are the philosophical differences between open source and free/libre software (if they exist at all)?
In the answers to this question it was shown, that a few licenses exist, that are only open source but not free software or the other way round. Still, most licenses are both or neither, so the ...
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Can the ability to fork override the copyright holder's desires?
Consider the following scenario
Project A is originally licensed under a permissive license
By the time it reaches version 6, it has built up a strong user base, many of those users producing closed ...
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Is the capacity of open source developers an infinite resource?
Last year, I participated in a Birds of a Feather panel discussion at Devoxx. During this panel discussion, David Blevins explained:
"We have this fairytale idea that open source is an infinite ...
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Does a seeming lack of strong protection for IP discourage innovation?
The Patent system works on the premise that the community benefits from the information shared, and rewards the innovators by granting them a period to capitalize on it without others grabbing a free ...
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Why was open source as a term created, although free software was already established?
Technically open source and free software more or less mean the same thing. They have different definitions, but they result basically in the same thing. So why was the Open Source Initiative founded ...
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What does the 'right to fork' mean?
Sometimes in regards to open source/free software I read about a 'right to fork'. What does it mean? Why is it relevant? Does all open source support this right?
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Is Open Source Software a subset of free software?
Is Open Source Software a subset of free software?
I was recently asked this and realized I was unsure the exact answer. I understand that free software is not a type of open source software, but I ...
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