IUBio

Time Magazine: Man of the Millennium

Peter da Silva peter at baileynm.com
Tue Sep 29 15:35:49 EST 1998


In article <6urd29$d19$1 at vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>,
TERENCE MURPHY <tsmurphy at cs.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>In article <6uqort$g89 at web.nmti.com>,
>Peter da Silva <peter at baileynm.com> wrote:
>>I don't like the term "free software", because there's a lot of "free
>>software" in the PC world that doesn't come with source. No charge,
>>unlimited redistribution, just no access to the code. If you go around
>>using the term "free software" today you'll confuse people.

>Hardly.  The whole Linux army has really beat the proverbial free lunch
>vs. free speech analogy to death.  Most Usenet users thoroughly
>understand what "free software" means and will get physically nauseous
>the next time they have to sit through yet another explanation of the
>difference between "libre" and "gratis".

I have to deal with people who are NOT Usenet users. If Eric does nothing
else with his life, coining a term that gets the point across to 80 column
minds [1] justifies his existence.

>And the term "Open Source" is just plain pompous.  And about ten
>times more disgusting when it is appended with "(tm)".

And the term "Free Software" is any better, especially couched around with
*its* associated silliness? It's the Capital Letters(tm) that do it.

[1] It's entirely possible to have an 80 column mind even if you've never
    seen a card reader in your life.

-- 
In hoc signo hack, Peter da Silva <peter at baileynm.com>
 `-_-'   "Heb jij vandaag je wolf al geaaid?"
  'U`
         "Tell init(8) to lock-n-load, we're goin' zombie slaying!"



More information about the Neur-sci mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net