zlacker

>>kotaKa+(OP)
The funny thing is Stallman started his fight like half a century ago and on regular days Hacker News shits on him eating something off of his foot and not being polished and diplomatic, and loves practical aspects of Corporate Open Source and gratis goodies and doesn't particularly care about Free Software.

On this day suddenly folks come out of the woodwork advocating for half baked measures to achieve what Stallman portrayed but they still hardly recognize this was EXACTLY his concern when he started the Free Software movement.

>>tgma+Rs1
Stallman actively hurts the cause with his behaviour. I'm not only talking about his eccentricities, but also the adversarial and combative language. Yes, Amazon is trying to swindle us, but few people will be convinced of that when you start your argument by calling the kindle an "Amazon swindle" every time, directly implying that anyone who has one is an idiot or even malicious.

Yes, it's unfair that someone can be 100% correct but people won't listen to them because of their appearance or mannerisms. But whining about that unfairness is unproductive. People will never listen to someone who can't stop themselves from eating stuff from their foot in public.

>>cedill+Kz1
I was always somewhat put off by his extreme vigilance over the word free. Stallmans usage of free software is exactly the same as the rest of the worlds open source. We also have “source available” for software that is license encumbered but distributes the source.

So much time and effort wasted on a fruitless effort to redefine words that already have well established meanings.

>>Gigach+yH1
Stallman has mentioned this before that it is a limit of the English language. Thus the use of Libre.

Problem is that many people today do still mistake Free software as no cost and for good reason. Funnily enough, "open sourcesource" turns out to have great SEO. Free software doesn't.

>>SlowTa+4J1
There are so many ways one could work around this (apparent) limitation. Liberty software, unbound software, modifiable software. Go all in on libre rather than putting it in an awkward 'free/libre' combo - languages borrow words from each other all the time. Swap the order round and talk about software freedom, or digital freedom. Make a portmanteau like libreware...

I'm not especially good at this, and obviously 'free software' has the benefit of a few decades history among the people who actually know it. But almost anything seems better than a phrase which has a very obvious meaning that's not the one you meant, and the consequent need for fussy little explanations. Especially when most Free Software is also free software.

>>takluy+yL1
Alas this is something many have been debating for decades at this point. Unfortunately, there isn't a really clear answer. Both sides have good and bad points.