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There is Free Software and then there is Free Software

Posted by Jeff91 on · 6 comments
Thoughts on Technology; By Jeff Hoogland 		Mail this story
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I think one thing that often confused people when they first get involved with free software is the difference between FOSS and freeware (or shareware). The source of this sometimes confusion can be sorted with the Latin statement:

Gratis versus Libre

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Comments (6)

Fix my Typo

Jeff91 Story submitter ·
Should be "difference between" not "different between". My fault, I submitted it with the improper wording there.

If the grammar nazis round these parts find any other English errors on my part feel free to point them out so they can be corrected.

~Jeff
ComputerBob ·
It's more than a little disingenuos to call the people who report the errors in your articles "nazis," but then ask them to continue to report those errors.
gus3 ·
I can be a grammar nazi, in the tradition of The Producers.

"Springtime for Hitler and Germany,

(Look, it's springtime!)

Winter for Poland and France..."

someone should stop this guy

padrian ·
of using computers/software
tracyanne ·
@ padrian, for what reason?
Koriel ·
What he said in the article seems perfectly resonable to me, a perfectly valid opinion although just not mine.

I make software myself although its not open source the Linux versions are free as in beer. The reason my software isn't open allows me to monetize it on the Windows platform, I freely admit this and I don't have a problem with it either I have a family to feed. My software has free open source competitors which means i have to ensure that my software is able to compete on ease of use and features. I am certainly not keeping my software closed to prevent choice as I said I have free and open competitors therefore plenty of choice is available and I most certainly don't practice lock-in which I despise.

I don't believe all software has to be open but i do believe in open standards and protocols to promote inter-connectivity between apps and platforms.

Once I no longer make money from my products I intend to release them under the GPL to prevent abandonment issues. Something that I am currently in the process of doing for one of my less successful apps which has had limited success on the Linux platform but bombed on the Windows platform for some reason I can't fathom as I aimed it at Windows users in the first place. So i've decided to cease full time development on it, open it up and move it to the back burner.

As i've said before in other threads I believe that open and closed philosophies can co-exist its not the philosophies that are the problem but the humans that practice each of them to the extremes.

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