Post #2598452

2021-04-02 07:45 UTC

@eloquence@social.coop I agree with the general idea here, but WRT "Open Source" I don't. That branding was deliberately invented to be confused and conflated with Software Freedom, so as to deflate the emancipatory movement into a sort of voluntaryist, CV-enriching, capitalism-compatible unprotected commons. To push back on that in favour of Free/Libre, Emancipatory Software is pretty important. Of course, RMS did a poor job of that by choosing "Free" as the keyword and sticking to it with characteristic obnoxiousness even as it continued to confuse people.

Replies (2)

@eloquence@social.coop 2021-04-02 08:03

@seachaint@hackers.town I'm familiar with the term's origins, but one of the beautiful things about language is that it evolves in the context of its use by humans every day. I have seen countless humans use this term with an emancipatory intent, and I do so myself frequently. That intent is (and should be!) communicated through more than two words, which (in my view) is far more important than whether you say "open source" or "free software".

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@be@fosstodon.org 2021-04-02 08:30

@seachaint@hackers.town @eloquence@social.coop @furkachi@tech.lgbt These issues are why I'm now advocating the term "cooperative technology" to move on from both "free software" and "open source". It gets the point across better than either and I think it will be harder for capitalists to coopt. Interestingly, it was discussed at the meeting where the term "open source" was settled on, but "open source" was chosen because it was watered down ideologically and therefore acceptable to capitalists. https://fosstodon.org/@be/105983348184637951

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