Krishwords

It is time we stop the term open source from getting hijacked. I recently wrote about how tech media doesn’t get open source. The events in the last week or so have confirmed my thesis further. During the OSCON, Microsoft announced that they have submitted some licenses to OSI for approval as open source license. Even before Bill Hilf of Microsoft could complete his speech, the saviors of open source in the tech media started talking as if the “holy god” has bestowed his power on us. They were grateful as if the President of United States has come down to shake hands with a small kid (well, whether the small kid will want to shake hands with the current president is a topic of different debate and let us not get into it now). These are the same people who said that open source is dead in the SaaS based world. I don’t understand why they think that Microsoft applying for open source licensing glorifies open source. If at all there is any glorification process involved (which I don’t think is necessary), it should be the case of Microsoft getting glorified by adapting open source. Open source is the President of United States and Microsoft if the kid waiting to shake hands. It is disgusting to see the so called saviors of open source kneeling in front of a company known to strangle the freedom of users. I am not against Microsoft. In fact, I will be very happy if Microsoft becomes the torch bearer of open source movement. But Microsoft should take in the concept of freedom, as it is defined in a saner democratic society, than their own twisted definitions of freedom. Let us listen to the reaction of Michael Tiemann, President of Open Source Initiative, on Microsoft’s application for approval.

Michael Tiemann, president of the non-profit Open Source Initiative, said that provisions in three out of five of Microsoft’s shared-source licenses that restrict source code to running only on the Windows operating system would contravene a fundamental tenet of open-source licenses as laid out by the OSI. By those rules, code must be free for anyone to view, use, modify as they see fit.

“I am certain that if they say Windows-only machines, that would not fly because that would restrict the field of use,” said Tiemann in an interview late Friday.

It is pretty evident that Microsoft hasn’t understood open source yet. Like many others, Microsoft is only trying to use open source to refurbish its image. I want businesses (Microsoft included) to embrace open source. But they should do it with an intention of respecting the freedom offered by the open source platform. They should not try to leverage open source for image building/refurbishing process. Open source is no business model. It is a platform that offers freedom to users. If companies and media can understand this, they can be a player. If not, it is time to take their hands off open source bandwagon. Here is my open appeal to Tim O’ Reilly.

Tim, I like the kinda work you have done to the tech industry as a whole. I also respect the efforts you have put in to promote open source. But open source is no Web 2.0, to treat it as a buzzword. Just because Microsoft was a diamond sponsor for OSCON doesn’t mean that they have embraced open source. I seriously urge you not to play into the hands of companies like Microsoft and dilute the definition of open source.

It is time for saner elements in the open source world to wake up and stop the abuse of the term open source by the tech media and companies like Microsoft. If we don’t do it now, the only other alternative is the free software movement and the business community may not be able to leverage the freedom offered by the free software then.

Tags: OpenSource, Opensource, Free Software, OSCON, Microsoft, OSI