ITBusiness.ca: The War of the Words

“The battle over widespread use of Free and Open Source Software
has been won, judging by the reception that the Linux Professional
Institute and the Free Software Foundation have received at the UN
World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva this week. Now
the real war begins, and there seem to be two main battles with
which to contend.

“The first is over terminology and it is really more of a minor
skirmish. It was exhibited in a panel discussion entitled ‘Choosing
Free and Open Source Software: a Constraint or a Solution?’ The
participants included Richard Stallman, founder of the FSF and the
GNU Project. Stallman used the term ‘fraternity,’ or brotherhood,
to describe members of the Free Software movement. Jean-Claude
Guédon, of the Open Source Initiative, preferred the term
‘solidarity.’ That difference was ignored, although I would have to
agree with Stallman. Although FOSS users and developers know that
we are all creating something wonderful, we do not speak with one
voice…”

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