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by Sylos 3361 days ago
Open-source means the exact same thing as free software, there's just an ideological difference between the two.

https://opensource.org/osd

1 comments

It definitely does not mean the same thing, the OSD is not congruent to the four freedoms. They have significant overlap, but they are not equal sets.[1]

As a dumb example, the Open Watcom license is an "open source" license but is not a free software license because it is too restrictive. In the Open Watcom instance, the OSD does not protect the freedom for users to have private copies of software, the four freedoms do (or at least the modern interpretation does).

There's also the whole TiVo thing, where the modern interpretation of freedom 0 is restricted by DRM while "open source" software does not have any problems with DRM restricting users.

[1]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point....