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by pessimizer 176 days ago
The didn't redefine the words, they defined them. Anyone using them for anything other than the purposes they were defined to cover is a dishonest parasite who is intending to trade on the goodwill of the people who adhere to OSI's guidelines. "Open Source," capitalized or not, was not a common phrase before they introduced it. I don't care if somebody in 1965 said "I decided I'm going to be open, and share the source code!" Somebody sitting right next to him probably said "I decided I'm going to be open, and tell people that I will never share the source code."

Because prefixing something with the word "Open" to imply that it would be completely transparent (in any context) wasn't even common before the term "Open Source" was invented. When people do that, they're hoping that the goodwill that Open Source has generated will be transferred to them, and they are judged on that basis. "Open" generally had a slightly different meaning: honest.

> A random "initiative"

And when you play stupid, nobody respects your argument. It's self-defeating.
1 comments
kstrauser 176 days ago
As a personal anecdote, while I’ve heard smart people say they were using “open source” way back when, I had personally never heard it used in any way before starting to used Linux and the BSDs in the late 90s, when OSI came along and people started discussing it in that context.

I can’t say others weren’t using it before then. I can say say that I first heard of Open Source after I’d heard of Free Software.

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Hizonner 176 days ago
Yes, "Open Source" is newer than "Free Software". The phrases was deliberately coined, yes in the 1990s, to cover different (and mostly broader) ground... because there was a desire for a clear distinction between them. Which there still is.
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kstrauser 176 days ago
Well, OSI didn’t coin “open source”. Factually, the term existed before OSI started using it. People have shared examples of isolated usage before then. However, they definitely brought it, and the modern definition, into common usage.

Like, if people had collectively used the term 23 times through 1996, then 837,000 times in 1997 or whenever OSI popularized it, I’m fully onboard with saying it’s their term.

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