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VMware ESXi Available For Free Starting Today
Mierdaan writes "VMware's bare-metal hypervisor is available for free starting today. ESXi, which can either be installed or run from an embedded device available in certain servers, has a 32MB footprint and gives small businesses an easy way to get into the virtualization world, with easy upgrade paths to enterprise-level features such as (H)igh (A)vailability and (D)istributed (R)esource (S)cheduler. ESXi runs on most any hardware with a server-class disk controller, and previously retailed for $495. VMware is obviously shooting to prevent Microsoft's Hyper-V technology from gaining a foothold in the marketplace."
Your comparison is bogus. McDonalds is a general public place, whereas this is slashdot, and is well known to be frequented by free software geeks.
It is unfortunate that the word "free" in English has such multiple meanings. Other languages have seperate words for "free as in freedom" and "free of charge"
Technically in English, "free" has no default value. If you want to avoid ambiguity, you have to say something like "free of charge"
You are right that you may be okay just saying "free" in McDonalds, but in places where freedom is likely to be discussed, you should know better than to assume. Either use the context where possible, otherwise ask for clarification.