Your analogy has a huge gaping hole in it. In your example your saying you wouldn't use the word hacker because it has a negative connotation for other people,

Your analogy has a huge gaping hole in it. In your example your saying you wouldn't use the word hacker because it has a negative connotation for other people, while in Linus' example he's not using the phrase free software because it has a negative connotation for himself. Big and very important difference.