Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Free software over freeware

[Lucy]

2009/3/13 Simon Ward <address@hidden>:
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 08:38:58AM +0000, Tim Dobson wrote:
>> I'd prefer not to mention the company name or exact field but I wonder
>> if people could summarise the advantages of freeing ones software and
>> what this can encourage as opposed to simply giving it away at no cost.

[snipped some good points]

> If they’re not so interested in the software, you might want to suggest
> that they would get more good PR from it if they made it free software
> anyway.  A freeware product that you can’t do much with (use and
> redistribute?) isn’t as much use to society as free software that gives
> people the freedom to examine, use, modify and redistribute.  Something
> that is more useful is likely to get more attention.

I think this may well be important. There is a growing buzz around
free software (okay so it's normally using the term open source). I've
seen this in the NHS/University sector to some extent and the
government's recent 'open source policy' (albeit vague) announcement
also shows that it's starting to get positive awareness from
management types who otherwise don't know what code is.