On Mon, Jan 03, 2011 at 05:28:06PM -0600, Alvaro Mantilla Gimenez wrote: > On Tue, 28 Dec 2010, Shlomi Fish wrote: > > >On Monday 27 Dec 2010 21:44:05 Alvaro Mantilla Gimenez wrote: > >>Hi, > >> > >> I think it is not fair to pointing the reader out directly to Linux. > >>There are other systems out there more Open Source than Linux like OpenBSD > >>(for example).
Open Source is ambiguous here. In this context it merely means the source code is available. In that instance, both the BSDs and the Linux distros are equally "Open". If you refer to "Free Software" as the Free Software Foundations do then you are talking about a fairly specific set of licenses, the GPL, under which Perl is licensed. (To be perfectly clear, Perl is licensed under a dual license; the Artistic License and the GPL, at your discretion.) > >> I think a briedfly review of these other OS would be good > >>for the article and, after that, let the reader to choose between Linux - > >>OpenBSD - FreeBSD - NetBSD, etc... Without a doubt these OSes are hugely important, especially in the perl world. > >First of all, while the licence of most of the BSDs is a permissive one > >whereas the licence of most of Linux is the GPL, which is more restrictive, The GPL is not more restrictive. On the contrary, it grants more permissions to the user of your software. In fact it grants the user the same freedoms you enjoy. This is something that the BSD license does not do, rather it allows one to subvert your freedom and not contribute changes back to your software. > >the GPL is still open-source. You can argue that the BSD licence and the X11 > >licence are more "open" or more "free" than the GPL or LGPL but that doesn't > >make them more "open source". I don't think you could successfully make that argument. I realize many people feel in their gut that the BSD is more free since it lets you do nearly whatever you want. But that is not freedom, it is merely the abscence of obligation. The GPL is designed to ensure that the freedoms you enjoy with Open Source are not taken away from you once you share your software. It allows others the same freedom you possess thereby increasing the amount of opportunity and real freedom in the ecosystem as opposed to granting those privileges a select few. This is a much more responsible approach. Surely there are times when a BSD license is more appropriate and corporations love to use it to release software because it absolves them of any necessity to maintain or support their software, but that does not give it any special imprimatur of "free" or "open". Jeremiah -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
