1999. That's when the first version of this document was published. The original 1999 press release is linked to Wikipedia. There were some conferences and debates that happened before that, and some settling of the OSI in the early 2000s. 20+ years ago.
> I don't know for you, but I was there 20+ years ago, developing and using open source softwares, and that distinction did not exist.
That's really pretty strange ... it was a pretty hot topic back then ... are you sure you used open source software? like linux, freebsd, apache httpd, gcc, bash, samba, mozilla...
The right to use software commercially even if the copyright holder doesn't like you is an important qualification of open source. GPL, LGPL, BSD, MIT, MPL, Apache etc all include this right. It's important. It did take people some time and debate to figure it out ... 20+ years ago.
> I don't know for you, but I was there 20+ years ago, developing and using open source softwares, and that distinction did not exist.
That's really pretty strange ... it was a pretty hot topic back then ... are you sure you used open source software? like linux, freebsd, apache httpd, gcc, bash, samba, mozilla...
The right to use software commercially even if the copyright holder doesn't like you is an important qualification of open source. GPL, LGPL, BSD, MIT, MPL, Apache etc all include this right. It's important. It did take people some time and debate to figure it out ... 20+ years ago.