Re: free in free beer? (News/2003/20030102.wml)
On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 10:31:58AM +0900, Tomohiro KUBOTA wrote:
>
> > The Test Drive Program is a free service of HP.
>
> I think that the "free" here is "free beer", not "free speech".
>
Correct.
> Debian always says "Debian is free software, in free speech
> meaning, not free beer meaning" and we always fight against
> "free-of-charge software" interpretation. Thus, I think that
> the word "free" without any comments must mean "free in free
> speech", not "free beer", when the word is spoken by Debian.
> If Debian wants to mention about "free beer", the word "free"
> has to have some comments.
This is so backwards it isn't funny. In common usage, the word free is
used in the sense of free beer 95% of the time. Having us go out of our
way to quantify the common usage is silly. Luckily, in this case the
context makes it clear what was intended (at least for a native
speaker).
As an aside, this is why I dislike the term 'free software'. It has
nothing to do with agendas or politics. It is simply a bad term due
to how misleading it is for people. People who hear the term for the
first time think they know what is intended when, in fact, they have
the wrong idea. Not exactly a good way to get an idea out. Now if the
term chosen had been 'social software'... :)
--
James (Jay) Treacy
treacy@debian.org
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