[sf-lug] [Balug-Talk] license count != software popularity (Re: Open Source less popular than Free Software)

[Jesse Zbikowski]

On 9/26/07, Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org> wrote:
> But I can almost
> believably measure the size of the Free Software idea/community vs. the
> Open Source idea/community.

By the number of different licenses?  No, no you can't, not even almost.

Both the FSF and OSI have stated goals of reducing license
proliferation.  So trying to measure the "size of the idea" or the
"size of the community" by the number of different licenses is totally
counterproductive.

Maybe you would be better off asking a random group of people if they
identify with "free software" or "open source".

> So in community size, I stand by the original
> flamebait in the Subject line: that Open Source is a smaller phenomenon
> than Free Software.

You have shown zero basis for this statement.