Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica) [LWN.net]

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 21:00 UTC (Tue) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458)
In reply to: Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica) by njwhite
Parent article: Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Sorry, if Nokia (or the cited article) gets the term "open" all messed up, either accidentally or on purpose, doesn't make the term "open source" itself ambiguous in any way. The term "free" is as ambiguouos (or more), in any case.

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Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 13, 2011 8:17 UTC (Wed) by njwhite (subscriber, #51848) [Link]

> if Nokia (or the cited article) gets the term "open" all messed up,
> either accidentally or on purpose, doesn't make the term "open source"
> itself ambiguous in any way

I somewhat disagree. One of the benefits of the term "open source" is that
people are supposed to already have a reasonable idea of what "open" means
which is close to what we mean by it. I was pointing to this as an example
showing that it's a more vague term than we tend to believe.

> The term "free" is as ambiguous (or more), in any case.

True, ish, certainly. But I think once you mention freedom, you're closer
to people understanding you than when you mention openness.