• Andy@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    101
    ·
    2 days ago

    I appreciate the distinction, but open source is always a spectrum, so I think the description is a reasonable application here.

    • forrgott@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      48
      ·
      2 days ago

      But the source code isn’t available. The source isn’t open. It’s not open-source, by definition.

      The “spectrum” you refer to us about how free you are to publicly make use of the code, not whether or not you even have the code.

      This situation does not fall inside that spectrum.

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      53
      ·
      2 days ago

      but open source is always a spectrum

      Is it? I’ve only ever heard “open source” to refer to the source code being released.

      Maybe there’s a different term they meant to say other than “open source”

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        2 days ago

        And being under a permissive license. Just making the source available is called source-available.

        • exu@feditown.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 days ago

          Permissive license means MIT or Apache2. The GPL or AGPL are also open source but copyleft licenses.

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      One could make that argument, but not in this case. Documenting an API has nothing to do with the open source status of the product.

      • Hawke@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        23
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        It is a spectrum (MIT vs GPL vs APL for example) but this is outside that spectrum.

        • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 day ago

          That is not a spectrum of open source. They are all open source, as in you can access the source code without restriction. These licenses just limit what you can do with the source code.

          • Hawke@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            Well, yeah. That’s what the spectrum is.

            Low end: “you can see the source but can’t do anything with it” (questionable whether this counts as open source at all)

            High end “do what you want, it’s literally yours” (public domain).

            One can debate where the low boundary of “open source” is, or what makes one license more or less free than another, but the spectrum is the range of limitations.

    • pogmommy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Even if it were this would be like saying neon green is greyscale