There is an animadversion that proprietary software is given away
"free" and therefore, Free Software is ambigious. Let us see if there
is any truth in this criticism. Since the literal use of the word
"free" is involved, let us have a look at what "free" means.
Upon the word "free", the OED says:
~ not in bondage to another, having personal rights, social and
political liberty
~ inheriting citizen rights and liberties
~ member of fraternity for mutual help and brotherly feeling
~ unfettered in action, unimpeded
~ open to all comers
~ spontaneous, unforced, unearned, gratuitous, willing
~ voluntary, not concealing one's opinions, blunt
~ released from difficulty
~ no fees charged
~ make free, set at liberty
If the word "free" is used to qualify software, then it would naturally
and literally mean and include all the above meanings listed above. If
the object qualified with "free" is not free in any sense of the word,
then the overapplicability should be restricted, to convey the true
qualities of the software without ambiguity.
We rightly use "free" in Free Software scoring a clean 10 out of 10,
whereas, the proprietary software companies use the word "free"
incorrectly, inappropriately, ambigiously and with overapplicability,
really scoring a poor 0 out of 10, meaning they cannot use the word
"free" correctly or honestly and is only a misnomer. Let us closely
examine the context in which the word "free" is used by the free
software community and the proprietary software entities to qualify
software.
[0] No bondage to others:
Free software is a collection of software like GNU/Linux or FreeBSD that
is a full fledged system, for single or multiple users or processors.
Every thing including the kernel (Linux, HURD, FreeBSD), shell (bash,
sh, csh, tcsh), compiler (gcc), office suites (OpenOffice), browsers
(Netscape and Mozilla), database servers (PostgreSQL etc), networking
applications (apache, sendmail, including general scripting software
like PHP, Perl, guile, elisp), graphics applications (gimp), and
hundreds of other utilites (tar, bc, cat, less, more) required to serve
our needs are available under the GPL or like Licence, with full source
code, making it possible to freely share, copy, and modify software for
our use. New tools and utilities are created by every new generation of
developers, and in the same traditions the software is added with
liberty. Free software if free for every user, and for every type of
use, personal, commercial or governmental, without any restrictions.
Any one can freely share and use Free Software without seeking
permission from anyone else. Free means freedom, totally negating the
restrictions imposed by proprietary software licenses. For example, a
school could use Free Software and freely give copies of the software
used to its teachers and pupils without restrictions. Governments could
freely use and distribute free software in the welfare of its citizens.
Now, proprietary software companies release just a trivial application
like a browser free of price and claim to having released "free
software". The word "free" here is a misnomer, because, to use this
piece of proprietary software, the user should have paid and purchased
other components - the kernel, shell, or other systems under a licence
from the proprietor. The ingenuius proprietary software licence will
carefully give a full working system free of price, without source code,
to governments and to educational institutions, just to ensure that the
citizens and their children will forced to use proprietary software, and
ultimately buy and use their proprietary software in their homes and
offices. In reality, the "free" proprietary software is not "free" but
merely mis-branded as "free" solely for marketing purposes.
[1] Inheriting citizen rights and liberties
Free software is freely inherited by the whole global community and
society. Every new generation will freely inherit a rich body of code
produced by the free software community. With proprietary software, one
should always be ready to purchase new licences at the drop of a hat.
To keep the free software free for the community, developers who modify
the free software source code and release to the public are required to
release the modified free software under the same terms of the licence
of the original software. The copyright holder of free software can
always sue the author who modified the software, for not freely
releasing the modifications. This is the only right the author of the
software code reserves for himself, just to ensure that future versions
of the free software remains free for the whole community. The spirit
of the free software movement is all pervasive, and sharing is
practically automatic and happily done with grace.
[2] member of fraternity for mutual help and brotherly feeling
Sharing is free with Free Software. Proprietary software licences
restrict sharing, and further will even prosecute for sharing which is
even worse. There is an air of fraternity, brotherhood and freedom in
the free software community, which is simply unknown in the proprietary
software world, where users are chained and tied with a licence that
will not allow any sharing or modification.
[3] unfettered in action:
Free Software may be used freely for commercial, office, home,
education, governmental or other purposes. There are no fetters on
copying, sale, exhibition, trading or installation of Free Software.
With most proprietary software, one has to spend a lot of time studying
licence restrictions on using components and literally several practical
actions required to use the software itself are fettered in one way or
the other. The proprietary software licence may say that even the
licenced user can use only one instance on any one computer at any given
point of time making realistic practical use of the software cumbersome.
[4] open to all comers:
Free Software has promoted the principle of equality like never before,
and all are welcome to the free software community. With proprietary
software, all doors are closed to people who cannot afford to purchase
the software.
[5] spontaneous, unforced, unearned, gratuitous, willing:
The whole free software community acts spontaneously and voluntarily to
develop high quality software to add well deserved honour to their
names, and willingly and gratuitously give away the software under the
GPL or like Licence. These freedoms are not possible or imaginable with
proprietary software.
[6] voluntary, not concealing one's opinions, blunt
Free software is used voluntarily, and enables users to express their
opinions about the software plainly and fruitfully in a way promoting
the interest of the entire community. If a user finds something amiss,
he may set out to correct the fault on his without wasting another
moment, and release his work to the public, happy to have been of help.
[7] released from difficulty:
The souce code for most free software is mostly written in ANSI C, and
free software applications can be compiled with gcc using standard
procedures. This gives great freedom to port software on to a number of
platforms and wide range of hardware, to suit a variety of needs.
Proprietary software companies do not release source code, and they
cannot be compiled with this kind of freedom, and are often tied to a
particular platform, or even worse, to a unique version of a particular
operating system.
[8] no fees charged
Free Software is free of price, if downloaded from Internet, or shared
between friends. The truth is that free software is more valuable than
being merely available free of cost. Since further copying and trading
is free, we can only say Price is Free plus profit if you can earn it.
If the same free software is distributed through a "commercial
package" the distributor gives the free software for a price greater
than zero, which may be the cost of providing warranty cover and other
distribution costs of CD/DVD media, printed manuals, packaging, shrink
wraps, advertisement and tranportation costs, dealership margins,
sometimes at a premium to those who can afford, and other business
costs. All users know that the free software included in the commercial
package is available at no cost elsewhere, and deliberately chooses to
buy a commercial package to suit their convenience or to promote the
free software.
Some criticize that the cost of implementing and maintaining free
software may be as high as proprietary software. This is for a short
span of time when documentation and other forms of help have not yet
evolved, mostly because free software developers spend most of the time
developing the software, and find little time to write elementary
manuals. But with time, excellent free online manuals are published,
through which a user can learn without spending any money on purchasing
documentation or training. One is free to learn through public mailing
lists, and even public libraries.
Proprietary software companies sometimes give away their software like
soap samples, only to promote purchases, and cannot qualify to be free
for all the above reasons. Even documentation for proprietary software
cannot be shared or freely reproduced.
[9] make free, set at liberty:
Free Software makes software users free and promotes their liberty in
several ways. Proprietary software can do only the opposite.
Therefore, while we correctly and meaningfully use the word "free" in
Free Software, proprietary software entities use the word "free" without
any substantial meaning or content, with overwhelming ambiguity and
overapplicability.
