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Openwashing Reports Are on Hold

Weekly openwashing report



Summary: The need to stress Software Freedom and shun all that "open" nonsense has quickly become apparent; some of the people who oppose Stallman turn out to be "Open Source" proponents who don't even value freedom of expression (free speech)

FOR TWO weekends in a row we did not post even a single "Openwashing Report"; this weekend too there probably won't be one. Readers deserve an explanation because a few months back we said we'd like to make this a weekly feature. Then we lost momentum, not because openwashing examples became too scarce but because they've become too many and increasingly the 'norm'; the moment there was something called Open Core Summit you just knew that Open Source had jumped the shark.



"We must now return to speaking in terms like Software Freedom. The term "open" is far too vague and often meaningless; it's open to spin and misrepresentation or misinterpretation."At one point we had someone volunteering to help us with research for "Openwashing Report"; one associate bemoaned the state of news regarding "open source", alleging that almost everything became openwashing. I too felt that way, which is why I started this series in the first place.

We must now return to speaking in terms like Software Freedom. The term "open" is far too vague and often meaningless; it's open to spin and misrepresentation or misinterpretation.

"More Open Than Open [...] I am constantly amazed at the flexibility of this single word.”

--Microsoft's Jason Matusow (further background in [1, 2, 3])

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