Right, so this is why the article tries to make the subtle distinction around "free" vs "open," not in the sense of the license, but in the spirit of the projec

Right, so this is why the article tries to make the subtle distinction around "free" vs "open," not in the sense of the license, but in the spirit of the project. Different licenses, but working at GitLab or working at GitHub probably feels pretty similar; you have a boss, there are probably sprints, you build features, fix bugs, and so on. This is fundamentally different than working on a rust port of a GNU utility. This is the sense in which the article is using the word "free." This is idiosyncratic and doesn't align with its either of free's typical usages (free as in beer or free as in FOSS), but there really isn't a perfect word for what the article is talking about.