[Fsf-friends] Please free Free Software from do(o)m

Ramanraj K ramanraj@md4.vsnl.net.in
Tue Dec 30 04:30:12 IST 2003


  Krishna Pagadala wrote:

>I am calling "free software" as "freedom software"
>these days. ... Does anybody have an opinion on this? Unless I hear
>good reasons for why it should be otherwise, I will be
>using "freedom software" when I try and explain free
>software movement.
>
Dear Mr. Krishna Pagadala,

"Freedom software" is incorrect, because "freedom" is a noun form 
derived from the adjective "free", and therefore the word "freedom" 
cannot be used to qualify the noun "software".  Proper nouns are 
sometimes used as proper adjectives, but freedom is a common noun, and 
does not qualify as a proper adjective.

The free software movement has a long history now, and it is 
inappropriate to invent new phrases for a well known and widely used 
expression that clearly points to software released under the GPL and 
like free licenses.  Please do visit www.gnu.org for details.  For more 
Light on Free Software, please read the postings so titled at 
http://www.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsf-friends/2003-November/ .  The 
posting titled "Free without ambiguity and overapplicability" 
exclusively dealt with the  usage of the word free in Free Software.  A 
Free Software International Treaty was suggested, so that state 
legislations, and all users would use the free software terminology more 
widely and uniformly throughout the world.

Kindly use the expression "free software", saving Free Software from 
do(o)m  ;-)

Regards,
K. Ramanraj.










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