Differences between version 13 and predecessor to the previous major change of Free.
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| Newer page: | version 13 | Last edited on Thursday, July 28, 2005 1:39:27 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
| Older page: | version 10 | Last edited on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 7:46:41 pm | by zcat(1) | Revert |
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
-One of the most contentious words in the OpenSource/FreeSoftware movements. The problem is that in [English] there are two
different meanings of the word "free":
+One of the most contentious words in the OpenSource/FreeSoftware movements. The problem is that in [English] there are many
different meanings of the word "free". The two meanings of the word 'free' that are typically used in conjunction with software are
:
-;
As in beer : It doesn't cost anything.
-;
As in speech : It's not confined, it has freedom, etc...
+As in beer:
+
It doesn't cost anything.
+
+
As in speech:
+
It's not confined, it has freedom, etc...
FreeSoftware is about "Free as in Free Speech", even though no cost is usually associated with it. Thus the confusion persists. People tend to talk about "Free as in freedom" with a capital F and "free as in beer" with a lowercase "f". [YMMV].
To ensure maximum confusion there's also [Vores Øl (Our Beer)|http://www.voresoel.dk/main.php?id=70] which is Free beer. Free Speech is a somewhat American concept to begin with, and it could also be argued that Free Speech has become considerably less free since the events of September 11th and/or the passing of the USA-PATRIOT act. For these (and other) reasons BruceKingsbury advocates the expression "Free as in Free Market" to get the point across. People usually understand that the Free Market thing is something to do with having fewer trade restrictions, equal access and fair competion between sellers, not a market where you can obtain goods at no cost!
