But
like the earlier meeting at VA, the discussion soon
turned to the problems associated with the term "free
software." O'Reilly, the summit host, remembers a
particularly insightful comment from Torvalds, a summit attendee.
"Linus had just moved to Silicon Valley at that point,
and he explained how only recently that he had learned
that the word `free' had two meanings-free as in
`libre' and free as in `gratis'-in English."
Michael Tiemann, founder of Cygnus, proposed an
alternative to the troublesome "free software" term:
sourceware. "Nobody got too excited about it," O'Reilly
recalls. "That's when Eric threw out the term `open source.'"
Although the term appealed to some, support for a
change in official terminology was far from unanimous.
At the end of the one-day conference, attendees put the
three terms-free software, open source, or
sourceware-to a vote. According to O'Reilly, 9 out of
the 15 attendees voted for "open source." Although some
still quibbled with the term, all attendees agreed to
use it in future discussions with the press.
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