this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024

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GitHub - WinampDesktop/winamp: Iconic media player (github.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not actually open source but ok.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

What is "actually open source", if "here's the source code" is not?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

There's a difference between source available and open source. For example, actually being allowed to distribute modified versions is pretty damn important:

Restrictions

No Distribution of Modified Versions: You may not distribute modified versions of the software, whether in source or binary form.

No Forking: You may not create, maintain, or distribute a forked version of the software.

Official Distribution: Only the maintainers of the official repository are allowed to distribute the software and its modifications.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

The official open-source definition expects more freedoms that just being able to see the source: the whole point of having the source isn't transparency, it's freedom. Freedom to fork and modify. Freedom to adapt the code to fix it and make it work for your use case, and share those modifications.

This doesn't let you modify the code or share your modifications at all.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

People often use the OSI's Open Source Definition when using the term "open source". One of its criteria says "The license must allow modifications and derived works" which this license does not allow.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/8367/is-the-term-open-source-a-trademark has a discussion about this.

The short story is that the OSI failed to obtain a legal trademark in the US for the term "open source" (software), resulting in many opportunistic companies and individuals adopting the term popularized by the OSI (which was founded by Eric Raymond, Michael Tiemann and Bruce Perens).

There was controversy at the time due to it being a business-friendly spin on the ideological "free software", and I personally avoided using the term for many years as a result. Even without a trademark on the now generic term of Open Source, there is still value in the OSI brand and its stamp of approval on a license.

Those who want to be crystal clear, should probably always say OSI Approved Open Source License.

Now, I'm off to have a Nescafé Approved Coffee.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

People often use the OSI’s Open Source Definition when using the term “open source”.

Which is one of the possible definitions. Mine is "you can see the code". Everything else falls into "free software".

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's nice. If your goal is to ever talk to people about open source software, that's going to create a lot of unnecessary confusion.

On top of that, accepting this bolsters companies to use this kind of a definition specifically to take advantage of the mental model that many people have connecting "open source" with OSI.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If your goal is to ever talk to people about open source software, that’s going to create a lot of unnecessary confusion.

I guess that my definition of open source is not that uncommon, given that the terms "free software" and "libre software" exist and are rather well-established by this point.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

The fact that there is overlap has no bearing on whether your definition is common.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

@tux0r You are right that this mistaken definition is quite common. Smart person would try to correct the mistake, not defend it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

The term that is often used for that is "source available". Good example of other software in this category would be what, Unreal Engine?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

This repo is a joke, lots of copyrighted code that shouldn't be there (dolby, shout cast)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is this the new one or the old one? Cuz I thought the new one was balls.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I guess how new are you talking? I think this said it was based on the 2019 release, but I haven’t heard much about recent releases. Winamp 2 was the classic one most people remember. Winamp 3 was a rewrite that was supposed to be better under the hood but a lot of people didn’t like it, mainly for the new interface it seemed. They jumped to Winamp 5 (2+3) to restore much of the old interface while keeping the capabilities of 3. I never had issues with 5 and continued to use it through Windows 7. Haven’t used Windows much since then so I don’t know how it runs now. There have been very rare point updates since AOL took over and later sold it, mostly bugfixes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I think the new one remains closed. Sadly, not locked away.

[–] Jagger 0 points 1 month ago

The want free work to polish they spaghetti code they can't fix