Like you mentioned in your article, this indeed seems to be Bruce Perens&#x27; opinion. However, notice how both Eric Raymond (on the side of open source) and Richard Stallman (on the side of free software) disagree with him.<p>If you listen to people like Eric Raymond, open source is all about quality. &quot;Many eyes make all bugs shallow&quot;, etc.<p>If you listen to people like Richard Stallman, free software is all about users&#x27; rights: in some cases free software may be of higher quality than comparable proprietary software, but that&#x27;s just a welcome side-effect -- what matters is that it respects users&#x27; rights. In this view, free software would be worthwhile <i>even</i> if it was technically inferior to contemporary proprietary software.<p>Or to put it another way: if Eric Raymond one days wakes up convinced that Open Source is technically inferior, he must drop it in order to remain consistent with his own justifications. If Richard Stallman one day wakes up convinced Free Software is technically inferior, he will remain committed to it, since technical quality was never his primary goal.<p>I&#x27;d say that&#x27;s a pretty big philosophical difference!