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Sun's COO Distorts Free In Free Software

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the he-got-free-as-in-beer-mixed-up-with-free-as-in-freedom dept.

sebFlyte writes "Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's COO and president, said at JavaOne that 'the most important initial in free and open source software, to me, if you want to reach the broadest marketplace in the world there's one price that works for everyone, and that's free". As you can imagine, this interpretation of 'free' in terms of software has angered a few people somewhat, including Richard Stallman..." From the article: "The free software movement stands for 'free' as in freedom. The open source campaign doesn't present freedom as an ethical issue, but it still formulates its criteria in terms of what users are permitted to do,"

3 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. define free by Coneasfast · · Score: 0, Troll

    this interpretation of 'free' in terms of software has angered a few people somewhat, including Richard Stallman

    bah, this is STALLMANS interpretation of free, the word 'free' was used in price way before it was used as in 'freedom'

    i HATE people that say otherwise.

    look, if you want to use 'free' to mean 'freedom', that's fine by me, but if you try and correct me when i use it as in 'no price', then you need to get a life.

    --
    Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
  2. Sun Bashing by Teckla · · Score: 0, Troll

    Dear Slashdot Editors,

    Can you ease up on the Sun bashing articles, at least for a few weeks? It's already clear to your readers you have some kind of special hate for Sun. No need to keep beating a dead horse.

    Thank you,
    A Slashdot Reader

  3. Wildly Off-topic by h4rm0ny · · Score: 0, Troll


    But where is /.'s coverage of the US announcement today that they're not going to relinquish control of the Internet DNS as promised. This is a major event, announced this morning and I can't find anything on it here at all, yet?

    --

    Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.