Rene Rivera wrote:
Ah, no... There are plenty of "free software" available without it being open-source. Say, like Sun Java was for a long time.
I'm talking of free software as defined by the free software foundation. http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html See also the open-source software definition: http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php As you can see, the open-source definition is quite more restrictive, and a license that complies with its terms automatically complies with the terms of the aforementioned free software definition. The fact that some compagnies claim their products are free software or not is quite irrelevant to that. I don't know about Java's case though. I just know that the CDDL, the license Sun usually uses for its open components, especially in Solaris, is a free and open-source license, while incompatible with the GPL. They probably need to use relicensing tricks (which they can do if they own the copyright) to make Solaris and Java cohabit, by the way.