

Free Software is not free - magice
http://dreamy-lambda.blogspot.com/2010/08/free-software-is-not-free.html

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spooneybarger
Points I find highly suspect:

Free Software (sometimes in conjunction with Open Source software) offers so
much more than proprietary ones

free systems (GNU/Linux, BSDs) are much more stable than proprietary ones
(Windows, Mac);

easier to use (with/without command line interface),

prettier

I'd also question the use of this language:

No wonder people still refuse to switch over.

What is a better point would be, most people don't care nor feel any need for
the Freedoms provided by Free Software. They just want to send an email, share
photos etc. Software is just a tool to get things done.

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ludwigvan
"Linux is only free if your time has no value." -- jwz

------
spooneybarger
Article tries to mean Free Software as defined by FSF yet includes BSDs as
Free Software. According to the FSF, BSD software is not free because someone
can take BSD code and make it proprietary see Mac OS X, Next etc.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
That's not true (and the post's author seems a bit confused on this point
too).

FSF say that copyleft is better (in most circumstances) for ensuring Free
Software remains Free and also helps encourage the creation of more Free
Software, but almost all Open Source is also Free Software by their
definition.

 _"In the GNU project, we use copyleft to protect these freedoms legally for
everyone. But noncopylefted free software also exists. We believe there are
important reasons why it is better to use copyleft, but if your program is
noncopylefted free software, it is still basically ethical. (See Categories of
Free Software for a description of how “free software,” “copylefted software”
and other categories of software relate to each other.)"_

from <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>

There's a diagram here:

<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html>

and a bottom line quote _"the differences in extension of the category are
small: nearly all free software is open source, and nearly all open source
software is free."_

~~~
jpr
"The term “freeware” has no clear accepted definition, but it is commonly used
for packages which permit redistribution but not modification (and their
source code is not available). These packages are not free software ..."

I think FSF would do itself a favor by not hijacking the term "free software"
to mean something that has to explained .

