Re: [Fsfe-uk] Liberated software

[Philip Hands]

Samuel Liddicott wrote:

> and we can do without that sort of connotation.
> Perhaps "liberating software" as that is more precise and even welcome 
> even to the mind of the ignorant?

The first thing that sprang to mind when I read the Subject: of the 
first message was that some spammer was peddling warez (i.e. software 
they'd "liberated" from the rightful owners) and I actually marked it as 
spam, without even bothering to read it, until I noticed the follow-ups.

Microsoft would love us to start using the word liberated rather than 
free, I'd imagine -- they'd have a field day.  They have enough fun with 
"open", as it is.

The best they can do with "Free" is to point out that you have to pay 
for free software somewhere along the line, so Free != Free.

At least with calling it Free Software you can be relatively certain 
that the proprietary vendors are not going to try and steal our clothes 
(like they do with Open Source) by calling their stuff something that 
sounds like Free, because they don't want to encourage customers to 
expect their software to cost nowt.

Cheers, Phil.

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