On 4 Aug 2011, at 20:57, Florian Effenberger wrote: > Hello, > > I've received a request to change two things on our website, regarding > terminology: > > - Instead of solely using "open source", I was asked that we should also use > "free software".
TL;DR summary: FOSS is a reasonable term to use sparingly in English (FOSS - Free, Open Source Software). Explanation: FLOSS is not a good term to use as it appears humourous to most people not educated to regard it otherwise. Over-use of "Free" distracts most native English speakers who rarely associate it with "Liberty" unless educated to do so and I don't think that's TDF's role. FOSS - Free, Open Source Software - works in many contexts as it does not have other common meanings and provokes curiosity, but should not be over-used as jargon and acronyms make text look complex. "Open Source" is a term widely recognised among computer users and is thus a good colloquial term in contexts where the message is about LibreOffice rather than about software freedom as a philosophy or ethical system. So my recommendation would be to occasionally use the construct "Free, Open Source software" (say once per page) and otherwise stick with "open source". > > - "Linux" should be referred to as "GNU/Linux". For most people it really doesn't matter, and it makes some people happy, so why not. > > I am, as we have a saying in Germany, rather emotionless on this, but I do > see that many people have concerns with solely using "open source" or leaving > out the "GNU" prefix. > > Shall we aim for achieving a good mixture of both terminologies? Anyone has > severe concerns on that? > > Florian -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to marketing+h...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
