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Comment by jagged-chisel

9 days ago

> … public good to be freely used, modified, and redistributed

That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.” I do understand the potential for misinterpretation, but one could easily add “after paying for it” and those freedoms don’t change.

53 comments

jagged-chisel

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earthcreed  9 days ago

English centric, although other languages may have collapsed gratis and liber into a single word.

tbrownaw  9 days ago

> That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.”

It occurs to me that this is a rather US-centric analogy.

  • gr4vityWall  9 days ago

    I see it as English-centric, rather than US-centric. That differentiation isn't necessary in most (all?) languages.

    Adopting the word "gratis" when the speaker means "at no monetary cost" also helps clarify things.

    • nandomrumber  9 days ago

      Would it be more correct to say it doesn’t necessarily mean free as in beer?

      Someone can give you a free beer and a complimentary license to manufacture and distribute that same beer, and even make changes to the recipe.

      1 reply →

  • amavect  8 days ago

    Free Software should rename to Liberty Software. Instead, advocates loaned Spanish "libre" in the ugly FLOSS acronym (Free/Libre Open Source Software). If only we used "liberty" then we could stop quibbling over the multiple meanings of "free" and just talk about software liberty.

    "Free as in bonus" vs "free as in liberty".

    • qwery  8 days ago

      later, ... there are 14 competing jargon files.

      "Free software" is a fine descriptor. It's needlessly confusing to repeat that "beer as in slurred speech" thing, though. Free software can be free "as in beer"[0], but the way it gets said makes it sound like it zero cost software is an anti-goal, rather than pointing out that it's not the true goal. Then the "free as in speech" thing is kind of pointless because you can just say "free as in freedom".

      Free software is about fundamental computer freedom -- freedom to own your computer, inspect and modify, etc. -- we already have this word.

      [0] where who why free beer ever? 0% relatable, 0/10 would still like a free beer though

      2 replies →

  • lossyalgo  9 days ago

    The current socio-political climate is actually making this analogy less US-centric by the day :(

    edit: I'm specifically referring to people losing their jobs and similar retaliations due to being on the left, or making public statements that the current administration and supporters don't like.

    • burnermore  8 days ago

      Its not just left. Right had to face this too. As a moderate, it's hilarious sometimes that one side would do something and when the other side does something similar, they are all up in arms about it.

      We should be allowed to discuss openly without being worried of losing job and humiliated.

      Right now, I cannot discuss openly. Majority are silent. And loud ones are a minority.

      Kevin hart losing Oscar hosting for a comment 12 some years ago. People who tried to cancel Eminem for his old songs and Rowan Atkinson's speech comes to mind on the top of my head.

      Getting offended is a YOU problem. Not a me problem.

      Until it's possible for us from both sides can talk openly, these will continue. Just like opposition political parties when one side is in more power, they will try and punish the other.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUezfuy8Qpc

  • Fire-Dragon-DoL  9 days ago

    Ah, this is the first time I understand the analogy because my mother tongue has two different words for "free", so I did not realize there was a need to differentiate

ozim  8 days ago

Well if let’s say local government like municipalities are paying for school software where you can check your child ren grades.

If there is API I should be able to make my own mobile app to access data or use other app.

Providers push ads and do shitty stuff to block any and all 3rd party access.

If it is that bad business just go away.

seydor  9 days ago

[flagged]

  • mort96  9 days ago

    Neither beer nor speech were the topics of discussion. "Free as in speech rather than free as in beer" is an analogy commonly used to specify that you're talking about freedom rather than money.

Jgoauh  9 days ago

>That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.”

what the hell does that mean

  • loudmax  9 days ago

    Today, we take the term "open source" for granted, but this wasn't always the case. There wasn't a single, universally accepted term to describe software that was freely shareable. "Free software" was one of the terms used, but it wasn't clear to non-programmers how this was different from proprietary software that was downloadable without having to pay for it. If you're not a programmer anyway, how should one type of "free software" be different from another?

    Proponents of what we now call "open source" wanted to distinguish between two senses of the word "free". One sense is not having to pay for something, as in "Come over to my party, the beer is free." Anther sense is "I can criticize the government, because the country I live in is free." People in the free software and open source movement began to phrase the dichotomy in these terms to illustrate how one sense of the word "free" is much more important than the other. The fact that you don't have to pay for some piece of software is nice, but what's more important is that you aren't beholden to the company that developed it.