OpenSource (was :Re: RADIUS server for OpenBSD)

[Seth Arnold <sarnold@willamette.edu>]

* ian.cass <ian@knowledge.com> [001201 05:31]:
> May be so, but from glancing at their website it's also very expensive to
> purchase. I thought Open Source was the ethos here?

Open Source != costs no money.

www.opensource.org/osd.html:
[...]
The license may not restrict any party from selling or giving away the
software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing
programs from several different sources. The license may not require a
royalty or other fee for such sale. (rationale)
[...]

The GPL:
[...]
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price.
[...]

BSD:
[says nothing about price, at least not at first glance :]

Being Open Source pretty much promises that if you want a change to be
made to the software, you are completely in your right to change the
software you have, and distribute your changes under the same license.
It doesn't promise that acquiring the software will be cheap. :)

(Before anyone flames anyone else, lets realize that many people use the
opensource.org definition, but not everyone, and no one has to force
anyone else to use any particular definition. However, there is force in
stating, ``this software's license is OSI certified''. :)


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