← Back to context

Comment by WhyNotHugo

1 day ago

Devils advocate here: I can give you a binary of my open source MIT code and never phone you the code. The code is still MIT licensed, and open source. You just have no access to it.

That said, I entirely agree that MS is misrepresenting their openness here, which isn’t in the least surprising.

? Do you know what “source” means in open source? Like, what is the source of the binary? It’s the code. That’s the source in open source.

  • I don't disagree, but it is perfectly acceptable per the MIT license, which is an OSI approved license. MIT doesn't require source distribution with the binary (which is why from the developer perspective, it's a more "permissive" license)

In their defense, most everyone else does the same thing. They still shouldn't do it, but at least they're not the trendsetter here (though they are contributing to the ongoing problem)