[wilhelmtux-discussion] Re: World Summit on the Information Society and Free Software

Richard Stallman rms at gnu.org
Sam Mar 29 13:39:23 CET 2003


    I have a hunch that in Switzerland,  people in favor of "non proprietary"
    software prefer using "open Source" because Swiss decision-makers get their
    knickers in a twist when they hear the word "free". I got this hunch from
    the intersessional documents for WSIS (1). Rumor had it that the authors had
    scrapped all mentions of "free software", but actually "Open Source"
    software has a relevant place in them.

If this is true, there could be various possible reasons for it.  It
may be that they dislike the principled view of the free software
movement.  They might prefer "open source" precisely because it avoids
seeing things in terms of principles.

					   So using the words "Open Source"
    might just be a way to get the principle through to our powers that be, who
    are rather ICT-illiterate.

It is hard to communicate any sort of principles with the term "open
source" because the open source movement does not have principles.
Where we in the free software movement have principles, the open
source movement has mere preferences.

Many people dislike the idea of standing up for freedom; such people
prefer the term "open source" precisely because it is associated with
a weaker stance.  It is possible that the WSIS people feel that way.
If so, it is important for us to generate a strong enough pressure for
free software and the ideals of freedom that we change their minds.

Meanwhile, simply saying "libre" and "frei" instead of "free"
will help with anyone in Switzerland.  They avoid the ambiguity
of the English word "free".

For more explanation about the difference between the free software
movement and the open source movement, see
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html.