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I know this whole OSS versus FS is a powder keg, but I just can't resist throwing in this: I have much more respect for a software pragmatist like Linus ...
  1. 11-19-2009 #11
    reed9
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    I know this whole OSS versus FS is a powder keg, but I just can't resist throwing in this: I have much more respect for a software pragmatist like Linus Torvalds than a software idealist like RM Stallman. Now give me a minute to put on my fireproof suit.
    lol. I have a great deal of respect for the free software idealist, and I agree with the FSF on most points. Which I suppose makes me a bit of a hypocrite since I then go and install proprietary wireless drivers, nvidia drivers, and use flash and non-free multimedia codecs.

    So I'm a pragmatist in practice and an idealist at heart, I guess. It was irritation with Windows that first prompted me to look into alternatives, but it was the free software ideals that sold me on linux.
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  2. 11-20-2009 #12
    ToMegaTherion
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    There is no difference in the software itself except that open source, the source code is free accesable. Anyone has the right by law to modify and change at will as long as they reference the writers of any source code not their own. Freeware, the user has no right to tamper modify or change the source code without the express concent of the copywrite owner of the program.

    At least that is my understanding for various readings
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  3. 11-20-2009 #13
    reed9
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    Freeware, the user has no right to tamper modify or change the source code without the express concent of the copywrite owner of the program.
    Freeware is not the same thing as Free Software. The first is free as in doesn't cost money, the second is free as in freedom. (Or as they say, Free Software is free as in speech, not free as in beer.)
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  4. 11-20-2009 #14
    elija
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    Quote Originally Posted by reed9 View Post
    Freeware is not the same thing as Free Software. The first is free as in doesn't cost money, the second is free as in freedom. (Or as they say, Free Software is free as in speech, not free as in beer.)

    Indeed.

    Sometimes free software isn't free and sometimes free software isn't free. Sometimes it's both free and free and sometimes it's neither free nor free!

    Why is this so hard to explain?
    If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate! (Zapp Brannigan)


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  5. 11-20-2009 #15
    GNU-Fan
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    Quote Originally Posted by elija View Post
    Why is this so hard to explain?
    Because you English guys were too stingy to buy two different words for two different meanings :P
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