Re: Open source - Free software

[Barry Margolin]

In article <p3hnh2lrtkrmb4utm32prr609qk2rbtoe3@4ax.com>,
 Al Klein <rukbat@pern.invalid> wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:18:02 -0400, Barry Margolin
> <barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> 
> >While it may be a shame, they've been using the phrase for about 20 
> >years now.  It's become part of the industry lexicon.  Similarly, we 
> >have the jargon "freeware" that refers to software distributed at no 
> >cost.  So there shouldn't be much ambiguity when the context is 
> >understood
> 
> Since most people who use software aren't part of "the industry", and
> understand "free" to mean "without charge", the phrase merely
> technospeak - the majority of the world will continue to consider
> software attached to the word free as being software without charge.
> As does acf.

And if I were talking to lay people, I probably wouldn't use uncommon 
industry jargon.  But this is a technical newsgroup, not a newspaper, so 
we should be able to talk in technospeak and not feel the need to define 
our terms every time.

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