- OpenAI
- OpenText
- OpenVMS
- OpenServer
- OpenEdge
- OpenDrive
- etc.
Some of these names (like OpenVMS) are from before the term “open source software” was coined (which was in 1998). They refer instead to “open systems”, meaning computer systems with published specifications, interoperable hardware, portable software, etc. – things that might seem like obvious choices now, but were not in early business computing.
Yeah, OpenBSD predates “open source” by a few years and some people actually found the name weird at the time because there was such a strong association with “Open” being used to mean things like “controlled by an industry consortium rather than a single company”.
There was a joke in one of the BOFH episodes (Bastard Operator from Hell for those unfamiliar, look it up if you don’t know it, it’s worth it) that went like this:
“So I tell him, ‘you can’t port Debian to a car computer, it’s not an open system’ ha ha ha ha”
That joke was not about the car computer.
A user called me complaining that he needed more space. I deleted half his data.
Thak makes sense, thank you!
things that might seem like obvious choices now
Not anymore.
Even a heavily proprietary system like iOS is much more of an “open system” in this sense than old mainframes. It uses standard networking protocols, supports programming languages that have published specifications, third-party hardware exists …
Yeah, but that’s because of building upon open systems, not because of consciously following something.
OpenAI was supposed to make AI R&D basically open for all, but they became closed after they realised how fucking good GPT can be. It’s understandable tbh but sad.
They betrayed their core values. Hypocrites to me.
That’s what money’ll do to ya.
If I was presented with billions of dollars of I went proprietary, I too would probably close source my software.
In an interview Sam altman said "they realise the amount of money they needed would never come only from donations.
It’s still kind of a foundation, he mentioned it in the Lex Friedman podcast.
The same reason that USA calls their brand of jingoism “freedom”
deleted by creator
The department of defense instead of the war department
Land of the free ≠ most jailed population on the planet…by faaaar
Department of Justice…as much as you can afford anyway
Protect and Serve…they kill more Americans than any gang, steal more from Americans then all other theft combined and only protect the interests of rich white shareholders. To the point of guarding a dumpster full of food in the middle of a pandemic.
It’s already been ruled that once something is thrown away, the precious party has relinquished rights to it so they kept ppl away from food for funsies
You can safely assume everything said from authority in a liberal western country means the opposite of what they say. Orwell tried to warn us, but those fuckers saw it as a blueprint, not a warning, and clearly they missed the immorality of it.
I’m convinced you can’t be rich, or work in law, and even be moral.
its clearly a marketing gimmick. to lend credibility to their products by stealing the goodwill associated with open source initiatives.
its a marketing trick for geeks. these people are jerks.
Because they can and the only ethics a company has are those imposed by laws.
Also more things now call themselfs “open source” even not being like that. AnyType or Llama AI for example.
I’m pretty sure Anytype is finally open sourcing their code after years of it being in alpha though?
Source is available to the public under their own custom licence, but you cannot use it commercially. Server side is closed. So you just know there is no malware inside and you can propose a bugfix, that’s not enough to be open source, yet they misleading call it that.
If you can look at the source code it is open source.
You seem to be using the term “open source” for what is instead commonly called “source-available”, which has a distinct meaning from open source.
[Source-available software] includes arrangements where the source can be viewed, and in some cases modified, but without necessarily meeting the criteria to be called open-source.
[Open-source software] is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose.
edit: fixed duplicated phrasing
No I am using the term for how it was originally used, back in the free software movement days in the 70s and 80s.
Open source means nothing more than the source beeing open for all to see. What your are describing we called Free Software or later FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) but the open source part is redundant in that acronym.
Also some started using Libre instead of Free, as Free sometimes are confused with Gratis. That is where the expression Free as in Freedom cones from.
Fair enough. I suppose the terminology has evolved somewhat with time, and I can’t say I have much insight into a time period from before I was born.
Marketing, literally NOTHING but marketing motivates this shit
(American perspective) Because companies are not only allowed to deceive the public for their benefit, it’s expected and encouraged.
Open your wallet and fill ours
Because they’re OpenAssholes™
Then wait until you learn how Creative bought up OpenAL (the audio answer to OpenGL and having to work with multiple audio extensions), and made it closed source…
Pure speculation : the idea of open source sells. It’s more appealing than the alternative.
I’m pretty sure someone like my parents has no idea what that even means, though I guess many of these companies might just be targeting younger people more likely to know
Surely the idea of open or free is always going to play better than closed, locked down and proprietary…? idk
Hey, people view something as locked down and proprietary as the Apple ecosystem as a good thing, so not really sure about that.
They just use different language. Vetted. Secure. Walled garden. And suddenly people are okay with it.
It’s hard to know for sure why people opt for Apple products… It could be any number of things.
Capitalism is a hell of a drug
I mean OpenAI used to be opensource with older models or?
So ExOpenAI?
Reminds me of all those countries claiming to be democratic in their name like Democratic Republic of the Congo, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka North Korea), etc.
