Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Herman wrote:-

>Free software is hardly ever *for* free,
>and I paid about ?50 for the Linux I use,

Someone misunderstands the meaning of the word ``free''. Free software is
free in the sense of free speech, not in the sense of free beer. (Please,
let's not open the one lexeme one meaning debate again!) You are free to
use, distribute, and modify free software. Contrast this with licensed
(non-free) software which the end-user license says you cannot legally
distribute it or modify and distribute it. That includes some software
which is free in the sense that you don't have to pay for it. You may have
to pay for services related to free software such as distribution and
technical support, but the software is still free.



Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_
E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz               </   New
Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax  64-3-364-2332       /)  Zealand
Unix Systems Administrator                   (/'