Free as in freedom means it doesn’t infringe on privacy (or any other rights) and free as in beer means no financial cost.
Comment on Has google stopped working for finding anything?
Archer@lemmy.world 5 months agoAfter hearing it for a decade plus I still don’t know what “free as in freedom/free is in beer” actually means
Yeller_king@reddthat.com 5 months ago
barsoap@lemm.ee 5 months ago
It’s open source. The line comes from the early days when people were still arguing over definitions and free vs. open source and GPL vs. BSD, when the concept was new enough to the general public so that they would confuse “free software” for “freeware”. By now all that has died down (unless you’re the FSF) and the acronym “FLOSS” was invented, which sidesteps the double meaning of “free” by adding on “libre”. Really they should’ve gone for GLOSS: Gratis, libre, open, source software.
(And for the nitpickers yes searxng is AGPL which makes it libre, not just open).
laverabe@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Free beer, like you get a free beer at a party or event, it’s no cost. Free software that costs nothing but is closed source.
Free as in freedom means the user has full access to the source code and is not subject to unknown code like in proprietary software.
Freedom as RMS sees it: lemmy.world/post/8134208?scrollToComments=true
wheels@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I always get confused by this analogy because my mind goes to beer representing open source (the ingredients aren’t secret, and you can brew it yourself if you want to). “Free Coca-cola” would work better, like you’re not paying for it right now but only one company knows how to make it.
Welt@lazysoci.al 5 months ago
The phrase is “free as in SPEECH/beer”, because it doesn’t make sense to say “freedom” - especially since that has all sorts of other connotations, especially in the USA. Everyone should be able to understand that free speech doesn’t mean a speech that you listen to at no cost to yourself. It means the ability to express yourself without censure. And beer… everyone understands that, and who doesn’t love free beer?