

Ask HN: Do you use 'open source' or 'open-source'? - TheMissingPiece

It seems to be split 50&#x2F;50 across the board. What do you use? Open source or open-source?
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Nadya
I use "open source" personally, but it depends if there is ambiguity.

"Open-source" is a compound modifier which are used to avoid ambiguity.

Example: "Man-eating shark" could be read "man eating shark" without the
hyphen, which can change the meaning to a man eating a shark instead of a
shark eating a man.

Wikipedia switches constantly:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source)

"open-source" occurs 138 times "open source" occurs 119 times

I can't think of a scenario where "open source" leads to ambiguity. I would
argue "open-source" removes any chance of ambiguity and is the better choice,
but for aesthetic purposes I prefer "open source".

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MalcolmDiggs
I usually use "open source" but I try to refer to the actual license to avoid
ambiguity whenever possible. e.g: rather than say "This repo is open source"
I'd rather say "This repo is MIT licensed".

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steanne
open source is a compound noun. open-source is a compound adjective.

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MichaelCrawford
I use Open Source and Free Software (capitalized) as well as free as in beer
(lowercase).

No one else seems to be picking up on my typographical hacktivism though.

