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by hamdingers 14 days ago
Not many are reimplementations of existing, much more popular, already open source projects.
2 comments

OpenSSH was a 'reaction' to the original SSH(.com) code getting closed source:

> OpenSSH originated in 1999 as a fork of Björn Grönvall's OSSH, which derived from Tatu Ylönen's original SSH 1.2.12 release, the last version distributed under a license permitting open-source redistribution before Ylönen's subsequent software became proprietary under SSH Communications Security.[4]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSSH

It was probably the second thing with the Open— prefix by this group of developers, OpenBSD itself being the first. They simply ran with the naming convention. OpenBGP/OSPF were developed as alternatives to Quagga (GPL).

Is rsync going closed source? If not, how is that the same thing?
No. The name only means it’s made by the OpenBSD team, nothing more. If they made their own Python port, it’d be called OpenPython, even though the original is FOSS.
So is OpenSUSE made by the BSD team? OpenOffice? OpenShift? OpenCV? OpenAI?

It is not reasonable to claim this prefix unambiguously refers to the OpenBSD team. I do not understand why so many in this thread are pretending this isn't a confusing choice.

Nobody ever claimed that “Open” is a prefix used unambiguously by only one group of people ever.

In fact, your insistence that “Open” can only be used by projects that are replacing proprietary software is itself very odd.

OpenBSD itself has had its name for thirty years, and is not named for being an “open source” implementation of a proprietary OS.

The person I replied to said the "open" prefix means it's made by the OpenBSD team and I am responding to that.

Do not invent arguments that I did not make. I have only said that naming it openrsync when rsync already exists and is "open" in the general sense is confusing.

I find the negative reactions to this observation very confusing, especially yours, but I see that you're an OpenBSD developer so that explains your bias.

Edit: and now these same people are backtracking to agree with me that "open" is ambiguous, this place never ceases to amaze

OpenBSD didn’t get its name from NetBSD going closed source.
Historically speaking, it may have meant open to poorly socialized developers.
> Is rsync going closed source? If not, how is that the same thing?

Not closed source, but with rsync 3.0 it changed its license to GPL3, which a lot of folks don't like: BSD/MIT licenses have zero limitations on use and distribution, GPL2 (rsync 1.x, 2.x) forces one to release code, GPL3 (rsync ≥3.x) adds further restrictions.

Some folks want to distribute code with as few restrictions as possible. Other folks have a great good/goal in mind (e.g., 'all software is open source') and so add 'local restrictions' to hopefully achieve greater non-restrictions.

Which aren't? It seems all (or most) are.