On 2007-09-29 01:27:04 +0200, Damien Kick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
>> On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:08:02 -0000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>> So much for the "free" in "free software". If you can't actually use
>>> it without paying money, whether for the software or for some book, it
>>> isn't really free, is it?
>>
>> Please do not confuse the term 'free' in 'free software' with 'gratis'.
>>
>> 'Gratis', i.e. 'lacking a monetary price tag' is something *very*
>> different from the meaning of 'free' in 'free software'.
>
> If you were referring to the "free" in "free Mumia Abu Jamal", I would
> agree with you. I don't think anyone would imagine that this phrase
> meant that someone was going to get Mumia Abu Jamal gratis. Like it or
> not, "free software" referring to "free as in beer" is probably the
> most common interpretation of the phrase for a native English speaker.
> Admittedly, I do not have a "scientific" survey handy. However, I just
> asked my wife--who has absolutely no interest in anything related to
> programming, has never heard of the FSF, Eric Raymond, nor the
> disagreement between those two camps, nor probably will she ever have
> an interest--what she thinks I mean when I say "free software". After
> getting over the "why are you asking such a stupid question" phase, the
> first thing that jumped to her mind was "free as in beer". You can
> stamp, growl, swagger, spit, curse, and bluster all you want on this
> point, but millions of English speakers are going to ignore you anyway.
> Lucky for most of them, they do not have to suffer the lectures of
> sociopolitically motivated language mavens trying to "correct" them
> from the error of mistaking the meaning of a phrase to be the normal
> meaning of that phrase.
Fully true for non-native English speakers as well. Just did the "wife
test" also - she is a pure software user - and yes, free is "no money,
do what you want" and that's it.
I *never* use the term "free" if I don't want to imply "free beer"
(which is a Good Thing and as such highly valuated - ask any Bavarian).
Using "free" as by FSF or any other lawyer-style 6 pixel font printed
phrasing is pure perfidiousness.
Frank
--
Frank Goenninger
frgo(at)goenninger(dot)net
"Don't ask me! I haven't been reading comp.lang.lisp long enough to
really know ..."
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
