How Open Does Open Source Need to be?

mjhuot writes "Doug MacEachern, CTO of Hyperic and creator of mod_perl, responds to criticism by Tarus Balog, a maintainer of OpenNMS, that his company's recent open source announcement is nothing but a marketing ploy. It is starting the debate on whether or not just releasing some code qualifies an application as 'open source.'"

Adventures in Naming

[B3ryllium]

"I know! Let's name him Taurus Balrog!!"

"No honey, that's too cruel ..."

"Okay .. er .."

And there you have it. Taurus Balrog would be a cool name, though :)

well...

[revery]

How Open Does Open Source Need to be?

[Haj] You know... open.
[Pin] But how open? It's not a black and white issue.
[Haj] It should be open, like a door.
[Pin] That makes no sense, Haj.
[Haj] Sure it does. A door is either open or closed. There's no in-between there my color-blind friend.
[Pin] Are you kidding me? Look at this door. It's closed. But if I pull it just a little, is it open?
[Haj] Yes. It is open.
[Pin] How about now, if I pull it some more, is it more open?
[Haj] You can't be more or less open Pin... That's my point.
[Pin] Look at the %^%@#@%# door Haj. Does it look MORE OPEN to you?
[Haj] Well that's a different question isn't it. Does it "look more open"?
[Pin] ...
[Haj] I mean what if my eyes were closed?
[Pin] Haj...
[Haj] What if I was blind, Pin? Huh, what then?
[Pin] ...
[Haj] Now you're totally stumped, aren't you buddy? Stumped by my rhetorical questions.
[Pin] ...
[Haj] [in a girl's voice] What if I was blind?
[Haj] I can't believe you don't have a response dude... Pin? whatcha doing with that ice pick?
[the screen goes black and there is the sound of terrible things being done to someone's eyes]
[Haj] I just want you to know, if you ask "does the door ~feel~ open", I'm not going to answer you man...
[Haj] Pin... Are you still there? Hello? Anybody?

an analogy

[acvh]

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!"
"Why shouldn't I?" he said.
I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Well ... are you religious or atheist?"
"Religious."
"Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?"
"Christian."
"Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
"Baptist Church of God."
"Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Wow! Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"
To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.