7 ms·

> … public good to be freely used, modified, and redistributed That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.” I do understand the potential for

> … public good to be freely used, modified, and redistributed That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.” I do understand the potential for misinterpretation, but one could easily add “after paying for it” and those freedoms don’t change.

seydor 9mo ago
[flagged]
- mort96 9mo ago
  Neither beer nor speech were the topics of discussion. "Free as in speech rather than free as in beer" is an analogy commonly used to specify that you're talking about freedom rather than money.
  - swiftcoder 9mo ago
    Being the only Romance language that doesn't have separate words for "libre" and "gratis" (liberté and gratuit, etc), has its downsides
    - tbrownaw 9mo ago
      > only Romance language ...But we're (mostly) not one?
      - swiftcoder 9mo ago
        I mean, yes and no? In common speech we certainly lean more on Germanic vocabulary (and grammar!), but the dictionary overall has a lot more French/Latin-derived vocabulary than it does Germanic - many of them overly formal/technical for daily speech (Entertainingly, modern German also adopted the Latin-rooted "gratis")
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
    - irishcoffee 9mo ago
      I could make an argument that "Complimentary" would be analogous to gratis in this context.
tbrownaw 9mo ago
> That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.” It occurs to me that this is a rather US-centric analogy.
- lossyalgo 9mo ago
  The current socio-political climate is actually making this analogy less US-centric by the day :( edit: I'm specifically referring to people losing their jobs and similar retaliations due to being on the left, or making public statements that the current administration and supporters don't like.
  - dizlexic 9mo ago
    It didn't start when it was people losing their jobs on the right? Brandon Eich's political donation comes to mind.
    - b40d-48b2-979e 9mo ago
      [flagged]
      - tremon 9mo ago
        Next you're going to tell us that religious fundamentalism isn't mostly a right-wing feature either.
      - Forgeties79 9mo ago
        Not as wild of a claim as you might think, as opposition to gay marriage falls starkly along political lines in the US. If you are a republican and you support gay marriage, you are solidly in the minority (41%). 12% of democrats oppose it. > In May 2025, a record-high 88% of Democrats supported same-sex marriage, support from independents stood at 76%, while Republican support dipped back down to 41% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_of_same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States#:~:text=A%20May%202025%20Gallup%20poll,%2C%20while%2028%25%20opposed%20it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_of_same-sex_mar...
earthcreed 9mo ago
English centric, although other languages may have collapsed gratis and liber into a single word.
Jgoauh 9mo ago
>That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.” what the hell does that mean
- meheleventyone 9mo ago
  Something that costs you nothing versus a freedom.
- brudgers 9mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre
- afthonos 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - nandomrumber 9mo ago
    [flagged]
  - Jgoauh 9mo ago
    wow you caught me
- nandomrumber 9mo ago
  I too struggled to understand this when I first came across it.
- loudmax 9mo ago
  Today, we take the term "open source" for granted, but this wasn't always the case. There wasn't a single, universally accepted term to describe software that was freely shareable. "Free software" was one of the terms used, but it wasn't clear to non-programmers how this was different from proprietary software that was downloadable without having to pay for it. If you're not a programmer anyway, how should one type of "free software" be different from another? Proponents of what we now call "open source" wanted to distinguish between two senses of the word "free". One sense is not having to pay for something, as in "Come over to my party, the beer is free." Anther sense is "I can criticize the government, because the country I live in is free." People in the free software and open source movement began to phrase the dichotomy in these terms to illustrate how one sense of the word "free" is much more important than the other. The fact that you don't have to pay for some piece of software is nice, but what's more important is that you aren't beholden to the company that developed it.
ozim 9mo ago
Well if let’s say local government like municipalities are paying for school software where you can check your child ren grades. If there is API I should be able to make my own mobile app to access data or use other app. Providers push ads and do shitty stuff to block any and all 3rd party access. If it is that bad business just go away.

seydor 9mo ago

[flagged]

mort96 9mo ago
Neither beer nor speech were the topics of discussion. "Free as in speech rather than free as in beer" is an analogy commonly used to specify that you're talking about freedom rather than money.
- swiftcoder 9mo ago
  Being the only Romance language that doesn't have separate words for "libre" and "gratis" (liberté and gratuit, etc), has its downsides
  - tbrownaw 9mo ago
    > only Romance language ...But we're (mostly) not one?
    - swiftcoder 9mo ago
      I mean, yes and no? In common speech we certainly lean more on Germanic vocabulary (and grammar!), but the dictionary overall has a lot more French/Latin-derived vocabulary than it does Germanic - many of them overly formal/technical for daily speech (Entertainingly, modern German also adopted the Latin-rooted "gratis")
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - irishcoffee 9mo ago
    I could make an argument that "Complimentary" would be analogous to gratis in this context.

tbrownaw 9mo ago

> That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.” It occurs to me that this is a rather US-centric analogy.

lossyalgo 9mo ago
The current socio-political climate is actually making this analogy less US-centric by the day :( edit: I'm specifically referring to people losing their jobs and similar retaliations due to being on the left, or making public statements that the current administration and supporters don't like.
- dizlexic 9mo ago
  It didn't start when it was people losing their jobs on the right? Brandon Eich's political donation comes to mind.
  - b40d-48b2-979e 9mo ago
    [flagged]
    - tremon 9mo ago
      Next you're going to tell us that religious fundamentalism isn't mostly a right-wing feature either.
    - Forgeties79 9mo ago
      Not as wild of a claim as you might think, as opposition to gay marriage falls starkly along political lines in the US. If you are a republican and you support gay marriage, you are solidly in the minority (41%). 12% of democrats oppose it. > In May 2025, a record-high 88% of Democrats supported same-sex marriage, support from independents stood at 76%, while Republican support dipped back down to 41% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_of_same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States#:~:text=A%20May%202025%20Gallup%20poll,%2C%20while%2028%25%20opposed%20it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_of_same-sex_mar...

earthcreed 9mo ago

English centric, although other languages may have collapsed gratis and liber into a single word.

Jgoauh 9mo ago

>That doesn’t mean “free as in beer,” but “free as in speech.” what the hell does that mean

meheleventyone 9mo ago
Something that costs you nothing versus a freedom.
brudgers 9mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre
afthonos 9mo ago
[flagged]
- nandomrumber 9mo ago
  [flagged]
- Jgoauh 9mo ago
  wow you caught me
nandomrumber 9mo ago
I too struggled to understand this when I first came across it.
loudmax 9mo ago
Today, we take the term "open source" for granted, but this wasn't always the case. There wasn't a single, universally accepted term to describe software that was freely shareable. "Free software" was one of the terms used, but it wasn't clear to non-programmers how this was different from proprietary software that was downloadable without having to pay for it. If you're not a programmer anyway, how should one type of "free software" be different from another? Proponents of what we now call "open source" wanted to distinguish between two senses of the word "free". One sense is not having to pay for something, as in "Come over to my party, the beer is free." Anther sense is "I can criticize the government, because the country I live in is free." People in the free software and open source movement began to phrase the dichotomy in these terms to illustrate how one sense of the word "free" is much more important than the other. The fact that you don't have to pay for some piece of software is nice, but what's more important is that you aren't beholden to the company that developed it.

ozim 9mo ago

Well if let’s say local government like municipalities are paying for school software where you can check your child ren grades. If there is API I should be able to make my own mobile app to access data or use other app. Providers push ads and do shitty stuff to block any and all 3rd party access. If it is that bad business just go away.