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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Some of these names (like OpenVMS) are from before the term "open source software" was coined (which was in 1998). They refer instead to "open systems", meaning computer systems with published specifications, interoperable hardware, portable software, etc. -- things that might seem like obvious choices now, but were not in early business computing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_system_(computing)
Yeah, OpenBSD predates “open source” by a few years and some people actually found the name weird at the time because there was such a strong association with “Open” being used to mean things like “controlled by an industry consortium rather than a single company”.
There was a joke in one of the BOFH episodes (Bastard Operator from Hell for those unfamiliar, look it up if you don't know it, it's worth it) that went like this:
"So I tell him, 'you can't port Debian to a car computer, it's not an open system' ha ha ha ha"
That joke was not about the car computer.
A user called me complaining that he needed more space. I deleted half his data.
Not anymore.
Even a heavily proprietary system like iOS is much more of an "open system" in this sense than old mainframes. It uses standard networking protocols, supports programming languages that have published specifications, third-party hardware exists ...
Yeah, but that's because of building upon open systems, not because of consciously following something.