I don’t know (but wanna learn) programming, but, for example, can’t you inspect the code of an app if it’s installed?

(yeah this is kind of a stupid question.)

EDIT: Thanks for the clarification, guys!

  • @JTskulk
    1•1 year ago

    Open source means you can read the source, Free software means you can modify and redistribute.

    • @fubo
      1•1 year ago

      Well, no.

      The term “open source software” was specifically invented to refer to the same set of software licenses as “free software”; but with a different political angle.

      Really. You can look it up.

      • @JTskulkEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        I remember reading the opposite back in the day, that this is why RMS dislikes the term “open source” and prefers “Free software” as more descriptive. Open source refers to software where you can read the source, but the license it’s under does not necessarily gaurantee freedom to the user.

        • @fubo
          1•1 year ago

          The people who coined the term “open source software” disagree, though. They’re allowed to be right about the use of their own term.

          (And extensionally, the set of software licenses accepted as “open source” by the “open source” people, and the set accepted as “free software” by the “free software” people, are the same set of licenses. Both agree that Microsoft “Shared Source” is not in this set, for example.)