Based on years of experience, and a fair bit of frustration, I have some recommendations about choice of words for journalists when writing about open-source software and its role in running data centers and enabling digital sovereignty.
Open-source software vs. open source solution. This is the big one. Software is an artifact (code) and a solution typically is a product by a vendor. If you are talking about an open source solution, then you are talking about a company (vendor) which is making a product and selling it. If the vendor makes that product available in parts or fully under an open source license (next to a commercial license), then they follow a commercial open source strategy, in case of which the vendor is often called a commercial open source firm.
Talk about open-source software if the software is freely available on the web (with an open source license), and talk about an open source solution if it is a commercial product by a vendor that happens to also be available as software on the web under an open source license (next to a commercial license).
Community open source vs. commercial open source. Most commercial open source firms develop their product themselves and tightly control it. Development may be in the open and next to a commercial license the source code also comes with an open source license. However, the commercial firm typically remains the sole owner of the source code and can and will change access conditions, including the open source license, as they see fit. This is different from community open source, where a large array of people have contributed, distributing copyright broadly, preventing any significant change in licensing or community behavior.
Avoid talking about open source broadly and be clear about who supports or controls the software: A broad and diverse open source community (then: community open source) or a single vendor with tight control of the software (then: commercial open source).
Lack of usability, poor product management. Journalists often claim that open-source software comes with a bad user experience or at least has a reputation of having bad user interfaces. This is only true for the specific sector of community open-source software where geeks develop the software for themselves. As soon the software is of broad commercial interest, whether it is community open-source software under the guidance of a foundation or commercial open source software owned, developed, marketed, and sold by a vendor, professional product management kicks in and you get user interfaces on par with other software.
If you repeat the claim that open source software provides a comparatively poor user experience, then be sure to also point out that this is not generally true: It is limited to open source software developed by geeks for geeks, mostly.
Open-source software affords digital sovereignty. Well, possibly. As a user, say an agency, you only get full digital sovereignty of your future, if you operate community open-source software yourself. In the now, you are sovereign, because you run the software yourself. In the future, you remain sovereign, because it is community open source software and nobody can pull the license for future updates.
You get some, but not full, sovereignty, if you operate commercial open-source software under the open source license by yourself. You get less than some sovereignty, if you pay for the commercial open-source software and operate software under the commercial license of the vendor, and if the commercial version is not identical to the version available under the open source license (which is typically the case). You get the least sovereignty if you use a vendor’s cloud service whether the software being used is open source or not.
When you talk about digital sovereignty, make sure to emphasize that full sovereignty is hard to achieve, requires the user to build up significant skills that often aren’t there first, and typically costs more than purchasing from a vendor.
What are your experiences with the press and common misunderstandings?
Journalists wondering about the use of the hyphen in the word open source, chek that link.
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