Re: Wikipedia to merge Free Software and Open Source

Philip Hunt wrote:
> On 06/04/2008, Noah Slater <[email protected]> wrote:
>>  The Wikitrolls and OSI appologists on Wikipedia are planning to merge the
>>  articles on Free Software and Open Source to avoid "nitpicking and
>>  agenda-advancing" despite the obvious absurdity of this.
> 
> It isn't obvious to me that this is absurd.

Open Source and Free Software are separate things.

Noah isn't saying there is any problems with Open Source, or people who 
support Open Source or anything like that.

What he is stating, perhaps a bit cryptically, is that people who 
perhaps spend a little too much time on Wikipedia are trying to merge 
the articles on "Open Source Software" and "Free Software".

I think he believes here is that Open Source Software and Free Software 
have sufficiently different goals and ideals to merit different 
Wikipedia articles as opposed to a combined article.

Therefore he is encouraging people to show their support on the said 
Wikipedia discussion page, if they believe the same as him.

It may even be conceived that he could be reaching out to people from 
the Open Source Software movement, who don't want their Wikipedia entry 
diluted with talk about ethics.

I believe this is the message that Noah is trying to relay, in the 
simplest terms possible.

On a personal level, I certainly agree with Noah, and I have seen the 
arguments of the people from Wikipedia (representatives of neither the 
Free Software Movement *or* the Open Source Software Movement), which 
*I* perceive to be totally stupid and without logic.

Anyway, I would encourage one to investigate the situation and then make 
an honest decision based on what the arguments are, rather than the 
personal opinions of people on this list.

-- 
www.tdobson.net
----
If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us
still has one object.
If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now
has two ideas.   -  George Bernard Shaw