Barry Margolin wrote: > > "Free Software" is open source. Free software, like free milk, is > > something you aren't charged for. It's a shame they chose such an > > ambiguous word.
> While it may be a shame, they've been using the phrase for about 20 > years now. It's become part of the industry lexicon. Similarly, we > have the jargon "freeware" that refers to software distributed at no > cost. Have you heard the expression "spin doctor". That expression describes what you seem to be doing. You talk about the expression "free software" in very authoritative terms, like "part of the industry lexicon". You describe the word "freeware" in a derogatory way and call it "jargon". > So there shouldn't be much ambiguity when the context is > understood -- we have distinct terms for these different concepts. > AFAIK, there's no other common term for what is called "free software", Why not call it "open source software", or GPL or LGPL software, or public domain software, etc..? Why do you absolutely want to use the very ambiguous expression "free software"? I can answer that question myself, actually. You want to use the expression "free software" for propagandistic purposes, to create and establish a new linguistic convention. Even though it is for a good cause it is a less well considered propagandistic effort, because it causes a lot of irritation and comes into conflict with the general use of the word "free". And when open source advocates go even further and want to stop people from using the word "freeware" because it could be confused with the expression "free software" which open source advocates have tried to hijack they are going far too far. -- Roger J. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
