With Independence Day coming up, I want to do a series of posts about freedom and what "free software" actually means. The English language is weak in the area of freedom, so when somebody says "free software" they think "free of charge" or "gratis" (to use the Latin term for the concept), which can really throw you, since most free software is available to anyone without monetary cost.

We want Linux to be the operating system of choice, because it makes the most sense. We understand the idea of Free software, and we also understand the advantages of free software (beer vs speech thing). As a group, however, we tend to stink the place up when it comes to evangelism.

It seems the author didn't understand the philosophy of free software. Free software is about freedom. Think free speech, not free beer. Feel free to explain it in comments... -- via http://linuxaucoin.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-software-festival-this-satu...

Over all I’m tolerant of using Vista.I feel comforatably using it, but it irks me sometimes.This is of course on a overall usability stand point and considering that I paid nothing for it. Vista is not free though. Not in the monetary sense or in the freedom sense.

What does it mean to be open. My copy of Oxford defines open as: unconcealed circumstances or condition. Way back in the day when the GNU operating system was getting going, they coined the mantra: Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.

So what is open source software (OSS)? It’s software that is free in every sense of the word: free to download, free to use, and free to view or modify. Most OSS is distributed on the Web and you don’t need to sign a license agreement to use it.

"A debate often heard among FOSS evangelists across the world, is that using software is about "free as in freedom, not free as in beer". The libre vs. gratis argument rings no less true for some of the richest corporations in the world."

"Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, because only free software respects the users' freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only. It says that non-free software is a suboptimal solution.

"Just returning from the iCommons Summit in Sapporo, Japan. The Free Beer project made a showing, with a locally brewed version. But this ad caught my eye: "Free Beer" for "500 yen."