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0 pointsGhotiFish11y ago0 comments

There seems to be a semantic argument going on here. As I see it, there are three terms at play

- "Open source"

- "Free"

- "Libre"

and again, as I see it, they all have mutually exclusive definitions. ie.

- the source is available to see and compile

- the project may be used without financial expense

- you may do with this project, and its source code, what you will (and personally I accept the restriction that you must preserve that right for others as not compromising this.)

under these definitions, I would now call the UE4 engine free and open source. I would not call it libre.

Do you object to any of these definitions?

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dragonwriter11y ago

> Do you object to any of these definitions?

In this context, all of them (well, maybe not "Libre", for which you have an approximation of the usual definition.) The common combination "Free/Libre/Open source Software" phrase comes from three different names for approximately the same thing in Software:

(1) Free Software under the FSF's Free Software definition [0]

(2) Open Source Software under the Open Source Initiative's Open Source Definition [1]

(3) "Libre", a term sometimes used parenthetically to distinguish Free Software in the Free Software sense as discussed above from free-of-charge (gratis) software.

[0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

[1] http://opensource.org/osd-annotated

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