Re: Suggestion for editorial change
On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 11:05:21AM +0100, Tomas Pospisek wrote:
> Am 18.12.2014 um 10:08 schrieb Andrei POPESCU:
> > [CCing you since I don't know if you're subscribed to -www]
> >
> > On Mi, 17 dec 14, 10:42:19, Tomas Nordin wrote:
> >> Hello Debian
> >>
> >> I was browsing through the page http://www.debian.org/intro/free
> >>
> >> and found room for editorial improvement. I would like to change the underlined wordings in
> >> """
> >> Software that is free only in the sense that you don't need to pay to
> >> use it is hardly free at all. You may be forbidden to pass it on, and
> >> you are almost certainly prevented from improving it. Software
> >> licensed at no cost is usually a weapon in a marketing campaign to
> >> promote a related product or to drive a smaller competitor out of
> >> business. There is no guarantee that it will stay free.
> >> """
> >> to
> >> "There is no guarantee that it will stay available at no cost"
> >
> > This can be addressed also with this simple addition.
> >
> >
> > Index: english/intro/free.wml
> > ===================================================================
> > RCS file: /cvs/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml,v
> > retrieving revision 1.24
> > diff -u -r1.24 free.wml
> > --- english/intro/free.wml 8 Jun 2014 01:58:21 -0000 1.24
> > +++ english/intro/free.wml 18 Dec 2014 09:06:51 -0000
> > @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
> > and you are almost certainly prevented from improving it. Software
> > licensed at no cost is usually a weapon in a marketing campaign to
> > promote a related product or to drive a smaller competitor out of
> > -business. There is no guarantee that it will stay free.
> > +business. There is no guarantee that it will stay free of charge.
> >
> > <P>Truly free software is always free. Software that is placed in the
> > public domain can be snapped up and put into non-free programs. Any
> >
> >
> > If no objection from -www I can apply this patch at any time.
>
> I'm not sure that this is a good change. I'd not restrict the meaning of
> that phrase to "free as in beer". The companies "giving away" such
> software could possibly change any terms of the software. Such as f.ex.
> not being availabe any more. Or starting to push ads through it. Or
> restricting the field of usage ("only personal usage") etc. So the price
> is not necessarily the most important thing that can go awry with "free
> as in beer" software. And I think that's the point OSS people are trying
> to make in the first place.
>
> So I'd rather not restrict the scope of that phrase.
> *t
>
The suggested addition is excellent. I don't know exactly what "phrase"
refers to, but the page clearly aims to guide the newcomers on what free
software is about. The paragraph clearly discuss "freeware". The word
"free" in the discussed sentence cannot have any other meaning than free
beer. It should be good to clarify that, given the aim of the page. The
word free will stay ambiguous.
Also, the paragraph already states that freeware is hardly free at all,
giving the example of 'you' not being allowed to improve it.
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