[GRASS5] Terminology: Free Software

[Bernhard Reiter]

Realising that I have started the debate,
I also think that was necessary to bring the issue up.
Hopefully we can keep it at a low temperature.

On Tue, Oct 09, 2001 at 10:28:56AM -0600, Roger Miller wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Oct 2001, Bernhard Reiter wrote:

> Like Helena, I prefer to continue calling it Open Source software.  

Okay.

Let me add that we should not invent other terms or try to introduce them.
It has been done a couple of times and the result was:
You had to explain much more and other possible missunderstandings
popped up.

> If you
> don't want to repeat some part of an older debate, then you might want to
> stop reading now.

There are also some missunderstandings 
which I feel the need to address.

> My main problem is that "free" software isn't free, and can -- at least in
> the short run -- be more expensive than commercial software.  I find that
> its far easier to explain what "open source" means then it is to explain
> the high cost of "free" software.

You understand that "free" in Free Software relates to Freedom.
If you are talking something like "Total cost of ownership"
it is of course a long debate.

For some pointers to study results:
	http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
	Section: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
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