The Open Software License, Version 3.0

Posted Aug 16, 2005 10:39 UTC (Tue) by dw (subscriber, #12017)
Parent article: The Open Software License, Version 3.0

As a regular reader of LWN I've often wondered what you mean by "important" when applied to open source projects of various kinds. In this case, the important label is being applied to Rails, the Ruby web framework that only in the last 6 months or more has really gained the social spotlight.

I don't know of any people using Rails yet in production, most are still only toying with it. It is probably a philosophical can-of-worms opener, but I can't help but wonder what your definition of important is. :)

David.

The Open Software License, Version 3.0

Posted Aug 18, 2005 18:19 UTC (Thu) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

"Important" usually refers to mindshare, not installed numbers. Mailing list, IRC, and blog traffic are usually pretty good indicators. By these measures, Ruby on Rails has become very important in the past 6 months. But, if you want production sites, check out basecamphq.com or the rubyonrails.com homepage for more.

If importance only depended on installed copies then SPICE would be a non-starter. In reality, SPICE was one of the more influential programs to come out of the last 3 decades.

NOT APPLIED TO RAILS

Posted Aug 22, 2005 20:30 UTC (Mon) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link]

David Heinemeier Hansson, author of Ruby on Rails, tells me he has never heard of the OSL, and intends to stick with the MIT license. What Rails were we talking about?

Bruce