After reading all about the new Movable Type 3 licensing scheme, I can’t think of a recent situation that better illustrates the huge chasm between open-source software (OSS) and the proprietary kind.

Hundreds of people who have poured their imagination and time into creating websites based on MT will now have to deal with the developer’s new license plan which, IMO, restricts the creative use of the software. (See this post on the Eyebeam reBlog for more.) To be clear, I wish the developers of Movable Type the best of luck; this whole situation seems to simply be growing pains. But to put it simply, these licenses underline this simple fact: with proprietary software, it’s not OUR software, it’s THEIR software.

Luckily for Blosxom users, our blogging software is released under the MIT license which is almost absurdly non-restrictive. We’ll never need to post in outrage because our toy is about to be taken away, or rail at Rael. We’re all as much owners and developers of Blosxom as is our main developer and that is the beauty of OSS. permanent link to this post