LWN: Comments on "Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis"

Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis

lilo — 2004-07-11T06:19:16+00:00

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.

Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis

jonabbey — 2004-07-09T22:06:47+00:00

Oooh, nice catch! That should certainly be brought to ESR's attention.

GPL usage

dwheeler — 2004-07-08T16:50:38+00:00

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

cdmiller — 2004-07-08T16:03:28+00:00

Questions for Eric,

Why is this characterized as a "war"?
What is your hypothesis?
Why should I care about your analysis?

- cameron

Terminology Wars: A Web Content Analysis

dvrabel — 2004-07-08T15:51:12+00:00

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

beroul — 2004-07-08T08:22:00+00:00

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.

Depends what you want to talk about

bignose — 2004-07-08T08:01:35+00:00

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.