When this paper was assigned, I was reluctant to write a 500-word paper on a subject that at first seemed to me very ambiguous. They both defined the same concept and there was no nuance whatsoever between the words. They were merely two redundant jargon words referencing the same idea that seemed to me obvious and did not need any further explanation. When I typed the words in the Google search bar, the number of hits surprised was surprising. The difference between Free Software and Open Source was at the heart of many forum discussions and was the subject of numerous papers. This enthusiasm gave me the motivation to deepen my research on the subject. I was eager to see what could be so important about the distinction between Free Software and Open source to animate so many people at that point.
The first interesting finding is that there exists a legal and official definition given to the two concepts. Free Software denotes the power and freedom of the user to run, copy, edit study change and improve a computer program. This freedom refers more precisely to: “the freedom to run the program, for any purpose; the freedom to study it, and adapt it to your needs; the freedom to redistribute copies; the freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public. While Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the product’s sources. To mention a few, these include free redistribution, integrity of the author’s code.
If the two concepts are rigorously defined and distinct, where is the relevance of this paper? The answer to that question is simple. Free Software and Open source have evolved into real philosophies and the confrontation between the two movements has become fierce. The Free Software movement and the Open Source movement are like two political camps within the free software community. In 1960, the schism created radical groups promoting factionalism what led to the failure of a number of organizations and conventions because of the disagreement on the strategy to implement. They were like two enemies, even though they share common thoughts on practical recommendations and more importantly she the same enemy: proprietary software. Each camp desires to demark itself from the other one. Each camp brags to the world about their unique contributions to the community. Each camp goes at fiercely demonstrating the problems that the other one does not solve or even creates. A partisan of the Free Software movement even writes: “We want people to associate our achievements with our values and our philosophy, not with theirs. We want to be heard, not obscured behind a group with different views. To prevent people from thinking we are part of them, we take pains to avoid using the word ``open'' to describe free software.”
These words carry a lot of animosity, and to be honest, I can see no reason that is strong enough to justify this radicalism. The two movements should work together in achieving the same goal. They are far from being incompatible they are complementary. They are two camps in software communism; one is just more at the left than the other one.
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