So, is Cork open source?
Yes, and in my opinion, the Free Software Foundation is retarded
I claim that Cork is open source right at the bottom of the repo. But sometimes, I get someone sending me a message about how Cork is not actually open source. So, what do I have to say to those people?
You’re wrong, and Cork is open source.
How this situation came to be
Cork is licensed under Commons Clause. This is literally the only piece of licensing information for Cork.
Basically, the code is open and anyone can browse, modify, jack off to it, whatever. You can do whatever you want with the code, as long as it’s not making money from it or any part of it.
Sounds pretty fair, right? You wouldn’t want some multinational conglomerate to take your hard work, which you spent countless days on, and sell it for millions in profit while not giving you a single penny. You wouldn’t want some asshole to take your app, slap a different logo on it, and sell it for twice the price you sell it for. You did all the work, after all.
The stuck-up, naive definition of open source
Some people think that open source is only when you let people do whatever they want with your code. That includes selling it, for example.
To those people, I say: I wish I lived in the utopia you live in.
I am not spending months developing an app, only for some asshole to swoop in, sell it without my permission, and make profit from it while not doing anything.
The sane definition of open source
I do not recognize the naive definition of “open source“ that some of these stuck-up purists subscribe to. I am a realist. If you let people do whatever they want, they will find a way to fuck you over.
“Open source“ is when the source is out there for anyone to view and modify for their own, non-commercial use. That’s the only sane definition of “open source“. None of that “source-available“ bullshit the purists spew to make themselves feel better. “Source-available“ doesn’t exist.
Closing thoughts
I will keep calling Cork “open source“, because it is open source.
I don’t care about what these naive purists think. I am not letting myself get screwed over. If you enjoy that… that’s your thing. But I prefer having the means to survive to ideological purity.