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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

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by meustrus on Thursday February 01 2018, @09:45PM (2 children)

    by meustrus (4961) on Thursday February 01 2018, @09:45PM (#631713)

    But I was elated. These were some key leaders in the community, and they liked the new name, or at least didn't object. This was a very good sign. There was probably not much more I could do to help; Eric Raymond was far better positioned to spread the new meme, and he did. Bruce Perens signed on to the effort immediately, helping set up Opensource.org and playing a key role in spreading the new term.

    Emphasis added.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @09:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @09:19AM (#631927)

    But "Open Source" was always a sop thrown to PHBs, since "Free Software", the real thing, sounded too much like Communism! Can you imagine a world, without imaginary property rights? Oh, dude, that's not what we are saying. You can still own everything, it is just that it will be Open, and Bruce will get a 0.5% cut of everything, alright?

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @09:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @09:45AM (#631932)

    Bruce has long since then seen the light.

    Most hackers know that Free Software and Open Source are just two words for
    the same thing. Unfortunately, though, Open Source has de-emphasized the
    importance of the freedoms involved in Free Software. It's time for us to
    fix that.

    -- It's Time to Talk about Free Software Again, 1999 https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1999/02/msg01641.html [debian.org]