[ale] OT: newsflash: Microsoft is still the devil...open source beware

[JK]

Jonathan Rickman wrote:

>>
>>IMO, for the OSI to certify a license as "open source compliant"
>>which contains a provision that licensed software was only allowed
>>to be run on Windows systems, would be stoopid indeed.
> 
> I was always under the impression that the O and S in OSI stood for "Open"
> and "Source" respectively. I didn't realize it stood for cross platform.

I think you are equivocating on the word "open" :-)

I was always under the impression that the "openness" in open
source was about freedom and inclusion -- specifically, the freedom
for anyone to learn from and innovate based upon existing code.  For
me, that has always been the whole point of open source: code that
is available to use and build upon without legal (as opposed to
purely technical) hassles.

The OSI seems to agree with me. From its definition of "open
source":

   """
   5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

   The license must not discriminate against any person or
   group of persons.
   """

A license that restricts software to running on Windows systems
only (as a legal matter, rather than a technical one) self-evidently
discriminates against non-Windows users.  Therefore, by its own
definition of OSS, the OSI should not certify such a license.

-- JK

-- 
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be
dismissed without evidence." -- Christopher Hitchens