The Meaning of Freedom

[sharathpaps]

What does the word 'freedom' mean in the context of open source?

What do you mean when you say "free as in beer" ? Is there some other kind of 'free'?

Could you please direct me to a place where I can learn more about this...

[DeadSuperHero]

"Free as in beer", as I understand, actually can be taken in this context:

-Suppose you're invited to a party. There's beer there, for anyone to take. No charge. Now, you don't have the recipe to make the beer, but you don't have to pay for it. This is a lot like freeware.

The other meaning of Free can go like this:

-Suppose your rich billionaire Uncle dies, and you inherit his brewery. Now, you have the ability to brew beer in any way you like, with any recipe. You can choose to give it away for free, and you can choose to share the recipe.

The GPL works like the above statement, except you HAVE to give your recipe if you made it in the GPL brewery.

By the way, sorry about the loss of your rich billionaire uncle. Uncle Proprietary was a pretty good man. Not great, but he was your uncle.

[matthew.ball]

Urgh, http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html


To understand the concept, you should think of "free" as in "free speech," not as in "free beer."

[racerraul]

Freedom in open source retains its meaning... Freedom as in not trapped or bound by any rules.

Freedom as in...
- free to use as you wish
- free to modify to suit your needs
- free to copy and redistribute
- free to improve and share your improvements


I personally don't like the term free as in free beer because that is not what it is all about... everyone should give back in anyway they can. And all the beer drinkers I know are a bunch of freeloading bums more akin to being parasites.

[vinutux]

What does the word 'freedom' mean in the context of open source?

What do you mean when you say "free as in beer" ? Is there some other kind of 'free'?

Could you please direct me to a place where I can learn more about this...

Here

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source



Defeniton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Definition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Definition)


Free software licence - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_licence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_licence)


Software freedom - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_freedom


.

[racerraul]

"Free as in beer", as I understand, actually can be taken in this context:

-Suppose you're invited to a party. There's beer there, for anyone to take. No charge. Now, you don't have the recipe to make the beer, but you don't have to pay for it. This is a lot like freeware.

The other meaning of Free can go like this:

-Suppose your rich billionaire Uncle dies, and you inherit his brewery. Now, you have the ability to brew beer in any way you like, with any recipe. You can choose to give it away for free, and you can choose to share the recipe.

The GPL works like the above statement, except you HAVE to give your recipe if you made it in the GPL brewery.

By the way, sorry about the loss of your rich billionaire uncle. Uncle Proprietary was a pretty good man. Not great, but he was your uncle.

The beer drunks I know would love you for holding them to such high standards :lolflag:

J/k good analogy

[lisati]

In other places, I've commented to people that with freedom comes responsibility, and responsibility implies the ability to respond.
In the context of Ubuntu, I am free to use Ubuntu as I wish, and I have an accompanying responsibility to help others use it (e.g. through these forums)

[sharathpaps]

@Mr.Psychopath: Lol, Uncle Proprietary might have been a good man but his ideas were old school. It was about time he died anyway ;-) R.I.P and thanks for putting that up in terms I would understand.

@matthew.ball: Thanks for the link. That clears up a lot of doubts. I'm gonna read and chew on it.

[Bigtime_Scrub]

There is also free as in speech. Which allows you to do whatever you would like to do to your computer, OS, or any other program in it. That is even more freedom that goes outside the context of free as in price. The GPL allows this, as long as you make your changes free in price and speech for others as well. That is how Ubuntu was created in the first place.

[sharathpaps]

So, am I right when I say that I am free to copy and redistribute copies of Ubuntu or any other open source software as long as I give a copy of the source code and the GPL license along with it?


What about selling this software? Somebody else does all the hard work writing the software. Then I copy it and sell it? How can that be fair? I remember seeing a thread a little while ago about this guy selling Ubuntu for $15 . Is it ok to sell open source software as long as I can provide support?

[Viva]

So, am I right when I say that I am free to copy and redistribute copies of Ubuntu or any other open source software as long as I give a copy of the source code and the GPL license along with it?


What about selling this software? Somebody else does all the hard work writing the software. Then I copy it and sell it? How can that be fair? I remember seeing a thread a little while ago about this guy selling Ubuntu for $15 . Is it ok to sell open source software as long as I can provide support?

It is okay to sell open source software even if you can't/don't provide support, as long as you distribute it under the original license.

[praveesh]

It is okay to sell open source software even if you can't/don't provide support, as long as you distribute it under the original license.

up to my knowledge, gpl v3 says you need to tell about the download links from which the customer can get the source codes of the softwares included.