Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Christine Peterson: How I Coined the Term 'Open Source'

posted by janrinok on Thursday February 01 2018, @07:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the well,-now-you-know dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Christine Peterson finally publishes her account of the day that the term "open source software" was coined, 20 years ago.

In a few days, on February 3, the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the term "open source software" is upon us. As open source software grows in popularity and powers some of the most robust and important innovations of our time, we reflect on its rise to prominence.

I am the originator of the term "open source software" and came up with it while executive director at Foresight Institute. Not a software developer like the rest, I thank Linux programmer Todd Anderson for supporting the term and proposing it to the group.

This is my account of how I came up with it, how it was proposed, and the subsequent reactions. Of course, there are a number of accounts of the coining of the term, for example by Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman, yet this is mine, written on January 2, 2006.

The article is not going to change the world, but it is an interesting piece of history that many in our community will find interesting.

Source: https://opensource.com/article/18/2/coining-term-open-source-software

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Christine Peterson: How I Coined the Term 'Open Source' | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 42 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:01PM (10 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:01PM (#631649) Homepage Journal

    Someone on Kuro5hin called them "fellow travelers". For example China and Vietnam were fellow travelers. They weren't allies because China attacked Vietnam in 1975 or so.

    I mailed Richard to ask him about the distinction I drew: "It's not the license that determines whether something is open source or free software: it's the reason the license was chosen".

    "That is correct," he replied.

    Some time ago he was quoted in the press as saying "Open source is for efficiency. Free Software exits to build a community."

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Interesting=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   5  

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:15PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:15PM (#631656)

    Yeah well if I consider my failed attempts to contribute necessary features to GNU GCC, then I am compelled to say there is no such thing as community in the free software community. No, free software is an exclusive jolly club! With jolly pirate nicknames!

    Oh yes those necessary features were added to GCC about a year or so after I contributed. Some popular person from the exclusive in-crowd wrote a patch containing the same features and it was immediately merged because popular in-crowd people are popular. Me I get ignored every single time no matter what I do.

    Fuck GNU, Fuck RMS, and Fuck You.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:41PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:41PM (#631677)

      probably didn't have anything to do with who was submitting the patch. probably just bad timing, etc. try not to be such a pissy little bitch. maybe they knew you were a pissy little bitch?

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:53PM (7 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:53PM (#631685)

        Maybe I learned my lesson and never contributed to free software ever again.

        This is what happens when you ignore enthusiastic volunteers who are willing to contribute to your movement. They don't stay enthusiastic for long. They soon realize your movement is an exclusive shitshow that exists solely for the the purpose of inflating the fucking egos of your tight-knit club.

        Fuck free software to fucking hell for all eternity.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @09:21PM (5 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @09:21PM (#631699)

          We love you, AC! It gets better! Once you get over your own egoism that makes you think that everyone else is an egoist, it gets better.

          • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 01 2018, @09:40PM (4 children)

            by Freeman (732) on Thursday February 01 2018, @09:40PM (#631712) Journal

            Reading AC comments makes you wonder, if it's just one person arguing with themselves.

            --
            Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

        • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday February 02 2018, @11:54AM

          by TheRaven (270) on Friday February 02 2018, @11:54AM (#631954) Journal
          A lot of LLVM developers have had similar experiences to yours, but the lesson that they learned was 'GCC has a horribly dysfunctional community' (it's improved a lot in the last few years, but it used to be really toxic) not 'don't contribute to free software'. Open source communities are just like any others: some are inviting and friendly, some are hostile and closed. My experience is that projects with permissive licenses tend to have more open communities (though I've seen extreme exceptions in both directions, including some very welcoming GNU projects) and sometimes you just find yourself talking to someone who's had a run of bad news recently and is unusually cranky.
          --
          sudo mod me up