Comment by WD-42
1 day ago
What's the deal with the name? Openrsync implies to me that it's an open source alternative to a closed source program. But the original Rsync is GPL? Is this just the pushover license making it "more open"?
1 day ago
What's the deal with the name? Openrsync implies to me that it's an open source alternative to a closed source program. But the original Rsync is GPL? Is this just the pushover license making it "more open"?
OpenBSD folks would consider the GPL to be less open due to the requirement to apply the GPL to any derivative works.
And GNU folks would say the GPL is actually the more open choice because it forces the project to stay open.
Two different ways of thinking about it I guess... it's nice to have choices and I don't think one is more or less "correct", more a matter of opinion/taste I guess.
It kind of reminds me of the equality of opportunity people versus the equality of outcome people. One sets the starting conditions for developers, the other the ending conditions for users.
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GNU folks would probably not say that.
GNU folks would say that the GPL does more to protect the freedom of end users by guaranteeing their right to access the source code, whereas permissive licenses allow users to receive binaries, the source code corresponding to which is unavailable to them.
I'm not trying to be idly pedantic here, but to emphasize one of things I genuinely admire about the FSF, SFC, etc.: while they do have words, concepts, and terms of art they're attached to, they're actually pretty good at always explicitly tying their positions back to a specific and well-articulated vision of software freedom. They don't usually get caught up in pure terminology ("what is maximally open?", "what is really free?"). They tend to be clear about whose rights they aim to promote and protect and why, and the bigger picture that fits into.
Whether you agree with them or not, I think it's a more defensible position than a shallow terminological squabble.
As someone that is somewhat aligned with those groups, I also want to say this: licenses are just tools for promoting freedom. It's a question of strategy and tactics. All permissively licensed free software is still free software, and the vast majority of it undeniably contributes positively to software freedom on the whole. (The only concrete exceptions I can think of are uses of permissively licensed free software code to implement things like Intel's Management Engine, DRM, maybe some Trusted Computing stuff.) OpenBSD is free software and it's good shit. We should think of licensing questions like this as a friendly dispute among people who have all given generously to support software freedom.
> Two different ways of thinking about it I guess
I don't think so; it's two different goals, not two different ways of thinking about it.
The goal of GPL is the interests of users (they can never be locked out of improvements no matter who makes changes).
The goal of BSD is the interests of the developers (A developer can take it, add mods and close of the entire result).
In practice, GPL is pro-user, BSD/MIT is pro-business.
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I don't think the FSF would say that. They prefer the GPL, because it prevents someone from making a closed derivative, but I haven't seen them ever claim it is more open than "permissive" licenses.
> more open choice because it forces the project
A true morality must be based on consent, not coercion. Humanity may not be there yet, and therein lies the argument for force (and thus copyleft); but the ultimate goal should always be to reduce its necessity.
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Many projects closely associated with OpenBSD start with "open"... openssh, openbgpd, openntpd, opensmtpd etc.
Notable exception, OpenSSL already had the Open prefix so the OpenBSD project is called LibreSSL.
It's tempting to develop a useful but closed source project called "is" and dare them to make an open version of it.
Not many are reimplementations of existing, much more popular, already open source projects.
OpenSSH was a 'reaction' to the original SSH(.com) code getting closed source:
> OpenSSH originated in 1999 as a fork of Björn Grönvall's OSSH, which derived from Tatu Ylönen's original SSH 1.2.12 release, the last version distributed under a license permitting open-source redistribution before Ylönen's subsequent software became proprietary under SSH Communications Security.[4]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSSH
It was probably the second thing with the Open— prefix by this group of developers, OpenBSD itself being the first. They simply ran with the naming convention. OpenBGP/OSPF were developed as alternatives to Quagga (GPL).
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Which aren't? It seems all (or most) are.