Re: Thanks, and a Brief Survey

["Lefty (石鏡 )" <lefty shugendo org>]

On 1/15/10 10:01 AM, "David Schlesinger" <lefty shugendo org> wrote:
> 
>> Free software isn't a synonym for open source, and by only using 'free
>> software' you aren't including all the OSI definitions which GNOME also
>> endorses.
> 
> This is actually an excellent, and an important, point.

Having poked around a little bit, I think this needs to be stated more
strongly. We certainly have software in GNOME that's being made available
under the Apache license. (The keyring is an example a little Google'ing
turned up...)

With respect to the v2 GPL?and we still don't accept v3 GPL software as
GNOME components, last I heard?software under the Apache license can't be
reasonably described as "free software", since it is incompatible with what
is uncontrovertibly a "free software license", i.e. the v2 GPL. It is,
regardless, unequivocally "open source software".

Given this, we cannot legitimately simply use the term "free software" to
describe what's included under the GNOME umbrella. Doing so would exclude
any software which is licensed under terms which the FSF says are
incompatible with the GPL.