12 ms·

Great library, seen it pop up here a few times. Slightly off topic, on the website it says: > "free as in beer, speech & love" ...In what world is beer free?

Great library, seen it pop up here a few times. Slightly off topic, on the website it says: > "free as in beer, speech & love" ...In what world is beer free? ;) haha

calvinr 9y ago
Free as in beer is a term for Freeware, you can use the software for free but you don't have access to the source code. It's like if someone was to give away free beer, you just have beer you can't make more, or modify it into something else.
clintonc 9y ago
"Free as in beer" is a phrase (loosely coined by Richard Stallman) to indicate that something does not cost money. This is as opposed to "free as in speech", meaning that it comes with no restrictions.
neogenix 9y ago
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/31717/what-do-the-phrases-free-speech-vs.-free-beer-really-mean/ https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/31717/what-do-the-phrases-fr...
rejschaap 9y ago
Probably the same world where speech and love are free. :) Roughly: Free as in beer means you don't have to pay money to use it. Free as in speech means you have freedom to use or modify it in any way you want Free as in love means it will happily plays with all other software and systems
- startupdiscuss 9y ago
  Ah, I could figure out the beer from the other two but I couldn't tell the speech-free apart from love-free. They should also add "Free as in dom" meaning the word used as a political ploy to have people conform to your point of view
- samstave 9y ago
  I've been on the internet for decades, and that phrase never sat well with me; Beer Money is a real phrase, and AFAICR I've always been required to tender a fee for the right to undock a beer container from the beer-temperature-control-apparatus or purge beer fluid from a heat controlled storage vessel.
  - estebank 9y ago
    Have you never been invited over and been offered to fetch yourself some beer from the fridge? It'd be weird for a friend to require you to tender a fee before doing so, and they'd also be quite annoyed if you started stockpiling the beer being offered to you and started reselling it. In my mind the phrase conjures the right frame of mind: "Hey! Check out this piece of code I've written, friend! Feel free to use it!"
    - samstave 9y ago
      That is a perfect way to put it for me to understand it... Thanks. I feel obtuse for not getting that for so long.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
maggit 9y ago
You have gotten many decent replies already. I think one thing that is missing is that the phrase talks about "free as in free beer". So it is not a statement that beer in general is free, it is a clarification that we want the meaning of "free" as in the phrase "free beer". In other words: At no cost. ("gratis") This is in contrast to "free" as in "free speech", which is about freedom/liberty. ("libre")

Great library, seen it pop up here a few times. Slightly off topic, on the website it says: > "free as in beer, speech & love" ...In what world is beer free? ;) haha

calvinr 9y ago

Free as in beer is a term for Freeware, you can use the software for free but you don't have access to the source code. It's like if someone was to give away free beer, you just have beer you can't make more, or modify it into something else.

clintonc 9y ago

"Free as in beer" is a phrase (loosely coined by Richard Stallman) to indicate that something does not cost money. This is as opposed to "free as in speech", meaning that it comes with no restrictions.

neogenix 9y ago

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/31717/what-do-the-phrases-free-speech-vs.-free-beer-really-mean/ https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/31717/what-do-the-phrases-fr...

rejschaap 9y ago

Probably the same world where speech and love are free. :) Roughly: Free as in beer means you don't have to pay money to use it. Free as in speech means you have freedom to use or modify it in any way you want Free as in love means it will happily plays with all other software and systems

startupdiscuss 9y ago
Ah, I could figure out the beer from the other two but I couldn't tell the speech-free apart from love-free. They should also add "Free as in dom" meaning the word used as a political ploy to have people conform to your point of view
samstave 9y ago
I've been on the internet for decades, and that phrase never sat well with me; Beer Money is a real phrase, and AFAICR I've always been required to tender a fee for the right to undock a beer container from the beer-temperature-control-apparatus or purge beer fluid from a heat controlled storage vessel.
- estebank 9y ago
  Have you never been invited over and been offered to fetch yourself some beer from the fridge? It'd be weird for a friend to require you to tender a fee before doing so, and they'd also be quite annoyed if you started stockpiling the beer being offered to you and started reselling it. In my mind the phrase conjures the right frame of mind: "Hey! Check out this piece of code I've written, friend! Feel free to use it!"
  - samstave 9y ago
    That is a perfect way to put it for me to understand it... Thanks. I feel obtuse for not getting that for so long.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

maggit 9y ago

You have gotten many decent replies already. I think one thing that is missing is that the phrase talks about "free as in free beer". So it is not a statement that beer in general is free, it is a clarification that we want the meaning of "free" as in the phrase "free beer". In other words: At no cost. ("gratis") This is in contrast to "free" as in "free speech", which is about freedom/liberty. ("libre")