Dear all
there's something. that puzzles me about what R is :-)
"R is available as Free Software under the terms of the Free
Software Foundation's GNU General Public License in source
code form."
(Source: http://www.r-project.org/about.html)
But, looking at the second paragraph of the same site, you
see this:
"... and R provides an Open Source route to participation in
that activity."
As we all know the term "open source" means something close
(but not identical) to "free software".
So, what is R?
It clearly seems to be "free software" and not only "open
source"
software, or?
Finally, Let's have a look at the following:
"... This article describes why using the term ``open source''
does
not solve any problems, and in fact creates some. These are the reasons
why it is better to stick with ``free software.'' ... "
(Source: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html )
I'm puzzled, are you?
Greets
Diego
P.S.: What about "Omegahat"?
--
Diego Kuonen $\in$ Chairs of Statistics $\subset$ DMA \@ EPFL
http://stat.kuonen.com http://www.Statoo.com
Q: How do I type "for i in *.dvi; do xdvi $i; done" in a GUI?
/* panic("esp: Aiee penguin on the SCSI-bus."); */
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On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Diego Kuonen wrote:> Dear all > > there's something. that puzzles me about what R is :-) > > "R is available as Free Software under the terms of the Free > Software Foundation's GNU General Public License in source > code form." > > (Source: http://www.r-project.org/about.html) > > But, looking at the second paragraph of the same site, you > see this: > > "... and R provides an Open Source route to participation in > that activity." > > As we all know the term "open source" means something close > (but not identical) to "free software". > > So, what is R? > > It clearly seems to be "free software" and not only "open source" > software, or?R is Open Source software in that it's license complies with the OSI definition. It is "free software" by the Debian and Free Software Foundation definitions, and is official GNU software. No problems here. As Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond (among others) have pointed out, the difference between these concepts is one of philosophical and marketing emphasis. The R developers, as far as I know, have no unified view on "open source" vs "free", nor do they need one. -thomas Thomas Lumley Asst. Professor, Biostatistics tlumley@u.washington.edu University of Washington, Seattle -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
It seems to me that your question can only be answered by the various copyright holders listed in the file COPYRIGHTS. In my opinion, if it is GPLed, it is GPLed. While your comments point out inconsistencies between common usage of open source and free software with the more technical usage, frankly I think your message is just stirring up trouble. It is clear that the GPL is the GPL. Your message addresses the documentation describing that license. There are plenty of holy wars splitting these hairs. I don't think we need one to start here. james>From Diego Kuonen, received Thu, Feb 08, 2001 at 08:01:46PM +0100: > Dear all > > there's something. that puzzles me about what R is :-) > > "R is available as Free Software under the terms of the Free > Software Foundation's GNU General Public License in source > code form." > > (Source: http://www.r-project.org/about.html) > > But, looking at the second paragraph of the same site, you > see this: > > "... and R provides an Open Source route to participation in > that activity." > > As we all know the term "open source" means something close > (but not identical) to "free software". > > So, what is R? > > It clearly seems to be "free software" and not only "open source" > software, or? > > > Finally, Let's have a look at the following: > > "... This article describes why using the term ``open source'' does > not solve any problems, and in fact creates some. These are the reasons > why it is better to stick with ``free software.'' ... " > > (Source: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html ) > > > I'm puzzled, are you? > > > Greets > > Diego > > > P.S.: What about "Omegahat"? > > > -- > Diego Kuonen $\in$ Chairs of Statistics $\subset$ DMA \@ EPFL > http://stat.kuonen.com http://www.Statoo.com > Q: How do I type "for i in *.dvi; do xdvi $i; done" in a GUI? > /* panic("esp: Aiee penguin on the SCSI-bus."); */ > -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- > r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html > Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" > (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch > _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._