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Open source started out as a term for marketing the "free software" concept. But from the beginning there has been an argument from the free software supporters that the concept "open source" does not actually help the adoption of free software. The dissent has recently gone wider with the approval of several license as "open source", but which are not suitable for free software products (most remarkable in this category are the Microsoft licenses).
Microsoft's MS-PL and MS-RL are sufficiently free licences; I would have no ethical problem with contributing code under those licences. However, there are a number of other licences that already serve the same purpose as these licenses. Whenever we start new projects, we should use already established licences to combat licence proliferation.
bogdanbiv
16 years 4 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago
Why is "open source" still relevant?
Open source started out as a term for marketing the "free software" concept. But from the beginning there has been an argument from the free software supporters that the concept "open source" does not actually help the adoption of free software. The dissent has recently gone wider with the approval of several license as "open source", but which are not suitable for free software products (most remarkable in this category are the Microsoft licenses).
aboutblank
16 years 4 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago
Microsoft's MS-PL and MS-RL
Microsoft's MS-PL and MS-RL are sufficiently free licences; I would have no ethical problem with contributing code under those licences. However, there are a number of other licences that already serve the same purpose as these licenses. Whenever we start new projects, we should use already established licences to combat licence proliferation.