FAQ for giving lectures about Free Software

Simon Morris mozrat at gmail.com
Thu Jul 6 13:56:55 UTC 2006


On 06/07/06, Matthias Kirschner <mk at fsfe.org> wrote:
> * Simon Morris <mozrat at gmail.com> [2006-07-05 21:25:29 +0100]:
>
> > Another reason why a term other than "free software" is sometimes
> > needed is that the word freeware is too easily confused with Free
> > Software and it has very negative connotations.
>
> Have you read http://www.fsfeurope.org/documents/whyfs.en.html?

I think I read it a while ago but the problem is that *no-one* else in
the organisation I work with will have done and they need to be
on-board with the benefits of Free Software for it to really take
hold.

It really sells itself being a well known, stable solution with a zero
cost number on the invoice sheet but when she calls it "freeware" it's
a problem.

I saw MJRs "imprecise moron" and of course he is saying that in good
spirits but we have to be aware that business people that have little
knowledge of Information Technology will get "Free Software" and
"freeware" confused and in their minds freeware is equal to crapware.

>
> > I use the term "Free Software" rather than "Open Source" out of habit
> > but in this instance I would have been better off using the latter.
>
> I do not think it would have helped; a lot of people think "Open Source"
> is gratis, too.

You are probably right. I also use the term "free of licence
restrictions" quite a lot which is inaccurate but less confusing.
Non-technical people seem to understand the phrase better.

-- 
~sm
Jabber: mozrat at gmail.com
www: http://beerandspeech.org



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