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Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis
Eric S. Raymond has put together
an analysis on the use of the terms "open source" and "free software"
on the web. Here are some of his conclusions:
(Log in to post comments)
Depends what you want to talk about Posted Jul 8, 2004 8:01 UTC (Thu) by bignose (subscriber, #40) [Link] Conversely, discussion of "open source" rarely raises issues of freedom, only of expedience. The term "free software" at least allows the topic of freedom to be discussed.
Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis Posted Jul 8, 2004 8:22 UTC (Thu) by beroul (guest, #13305) [Link] What would be more interesting would be to see the evolution of the use of the GPL as opposed to non-copyleft licences, particularly since the beginning of the SCO wars.
GPL usage Posted Jul 8, 2004 16:50 UTC (Thu) by dwheeler (subscriber, #1216) [Link] My essay Make Your Open Source Software GPL-Compatible. Or Else. has some statistics on GPL use. It doesn't examine it over time, but you could use its sources to start gathering such data.
Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis Posted Jul 8, 2004 15:51 UTC (Thu) by dvrabel (subscriber, #9500) [Link] The stats for developer usage have got to be skewed. Every Sourceforge page has Open Source Development Network at the bottom and similarly Savannah has Free Software Foundation. I don't think a page count comparison between Sourceforge and Savannah is a particularly useful statistic to consider.
Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis Posted Jul 9, 2004 22:06 UTC (Fri) by jonabbey (subscriber, #2736) [Link] Oooh, nice catch! That should certainly be brought to ESR's attention.
Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis Posted Jul 8, 2004 16:03 UTC (Thu) by cdmiller (subscriber, #2813) [Link] Questions for Eric,Why is this characterized as a "war"? - cameron
Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis Posted Jul 11, 2004 6:19 UTC (Sun) by lilo (guest, #661) [Link] It's interesting, and I don't think I'm qualified to decide what specific problems might exist in his analysis. But I think I'd go to a disinterested source if I truly wanted an analysis of which term "is winning". ESR is definitely not that.This sort of analysis seems to be more about competing for mindshare *within* the community than outside it.
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