🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <house.792130774@helios>, ron house <house@helios.usq.EDU.AU> wrote:
>bwarsaw@cnri.reston.va.us (Barry A. Warsaw) writes:
>
>>>>>>> "CK" == Christopher Key <skip@fohnix.metronet.com> writes:
>
>>    >> When they use the term "software", they mean source. A lot of
>>    >> people are confused because they take "free software" to mean
>>    >> "binaries I can get for no price".
>
>How can people be so unreasonable?! Imagine! "Free" means "free".
>There should be a law...
>
>>    CK> Here's the problem.  A compiled binary _is_ still software,
>>    CK> and the FSF can't change that.  Just because the FSF doesn't
>>    CK> like binary-only distributions doesn't change that.  I think
>>    CK> very few people other than a few activists would have a
>>    CK> problem considering a binary that contained no restrictions on
>>    CK> its usage or distribution free software.
>
>>What if I wanted to check a piece of software for time-bombs or other
>>`anti-social' behavior, or if I want to write some enhancement, or
>>patch a bug, or port it to a new OS?  I am not free to do any of this
>>with a binary-only distribution.
>
>So you can't. So if I go to a soup kitchen for a free meal, and I
>expect it to taste like a meal from an expensive restaurant, it won't.
>But it's still free. "Free" means "no cost". Just because you and
>the FSF have decided to change the meaning of a common word doesn't
>mean anyone else has to go along with it.

From the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary:

(1)free:  1 a: having the legal and political rights of a citizen b:
enjoying civil and political liberty <~ citizens> c: enjoying
political independance or freedom from outside domination d: enjoying
personal freedom: not subject to the control or domination of another
2 a: not determined by anything beyond its own nature or being :
choosing or capable of choosing for itself b: determined by the choice
of the actor or by his wishes <~ actions> c: made, done, or givin
voluntary or spontaneously : SPONTANEOUS 3 a: exempt, relieved, or
released esp. from a burdensome, noxious, or deplorable condition or
obligation <~ from pain> b : not bound, confined, or detained by force
<prisoner was now ~> 4 a: having no trade restriction b: not subject
to government regulation c of foreign exchange: not subject to
restriction or official control 5 a: having no obligations (as to
work) or commitments (as to duty or custom) <I'll be ~ this evening>
b: not taken up with commitments or obligations <a ~ evening> 6:
having a scope not restricted by qualification <a ~ variable> 7 a (1):
not obstructed or impeded: CLEAR <a ~ and open highway> (2): not being
used or occupied <waved with his ~ hand> b: not hampered or restricted
in its normal operation: LOOSE 8 a: not fastened <the ~ end of the
rope> b: not confined to a particular position or place; also: not
having a specific opponent to cover in football <a ~ safety> c:
capable of moving or turning in any direction <a ~ particle> d:
performed without apparatus <~ tumbling> 9 a: not parsimonious <~
spending> b: OUTSPOKEN c: availing oneself of something without stint
d: FRANK, OPEN e: overly familiar or forward in action or attitude f:
LICENTIOUS 10: not costing or charging anything 11 a (1): not united
with, attached to, or combined with something else: SEPARATE <~
ores><a ~ surface of a bodily part> (2): FREESTANDING <a ~ column> b:
chemically uncombined <~ oxygen><~ acids> c: not permanantly attached
but able to move about < a ~ electron in a metal> d: capable of being
used alone as a meaningful linguistic form <the word /hats/ is a ~
form> -- compare (4)BOUND(7)  12 a: not literal or exact <~
translation> b: not restricted by or conforming to conventional forms
<~ skating> 13: FAVORABLE -- used of a wind blowing from a direction
more than six points from straight ahead 14: not allowing slavery 15:
open to all comers -- free-ly adv.  Syn: FREE INDEPENDANT, AUTONOMOUS,
SOVEREIGN (shared meaning element: not subject to the rule or control
of another)
(2)free adv 1: in a free manner 2: without charge <admitted ~> 3: with
the wind more than six points from dead ahead <sailing free>
(3)free vt freed; freeing 1 a: to cause to be free b: to releive or
rid of what restrains, confines, restricts, or embarrases <~ a man
from debt> c: DISENTANGLE, CLEAR 2(obsolete): BANISH -- fre-er n  SYN:
FREE, RELEASE, LIBERATE, EMANCIPATE, MANUMIT, DISCHARGE (shared
meaning element: to loose from constraint or restraint)

Free software isn't separately defined, but I think from the
discussions here, the FSF own documents, and the GPL, the "free" in
"Free Software" is more in line with 1free3, 1free4, 1free6, 1free7,
2free1 or 3free1b than 1free10 or 2free2.  Since dictionaries tend to
list the more common or important definitions first, and since all of
the intended meanings are before the "no cost" meaning, I would claim
that YOU are the one trying to bend the language to suit your needs,
not the FSF.

>
>--
>
>Ron House.         USQ                   | A nonviolent diet is the
>(house@usq.edu.au) Toowoomba, Australia. | foundation for a nonviolent world.


-- 
bbuck@nox.cs.du.edu    #  http://nyx10.cs.du.edu:8001/~bbuck
Buddha Buck            #
85.5 Albany Street     #  The above opinions are mine, MINE, MINE!!!
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