Re: Open source - Free software

[Barry Margolin]

In article <1159346302.210382.216410@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com>,
 "Roger Johansson" <roger4911@gmail.com> wrote:

> Jim Richardson wrote:
> 
> > "freeware" and "Free Software" are not the same thing. Free Software
> > refers to (mostly) GPL stuff. (See the FSF for details) that's all Open
> > Source, as well as "Free Sosftware" freeware, is just the usual "try our
> > stuff before you buy" thing. A whole different kettle of fish.
> 
> At the heart of this matter we find a group of people who have created
> the FSF you mention, Free Software Foundation.
> 
> Obviously they think they can hijack a common word like free, and
> decide that it can only mean one thing in connection to software.

Whether they should be able to is of purely academic interest.  The fact 
is that they *did* do this, and this is what the phrase "free software" 
now means in the industry.  You can dislike it all you want, but you 
can't legitimately claim that it didn't happen, and ignoring it will 
simply lead to confusion in discussions like this.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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