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# Free software

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Free software has emerged in recent years as an ambiguous term, meaning either software without monetary cost or software that is free according to the standards of the free software movement. These meanings are distinguished in the GNU Free Software Definition as "free beer" and "free speech"

On the one hand, for most people, "free software" means "software without monetary cost", often called freeware? or shareware. Freeware and shareware are alike in that they can be obtained and used without monetary cost. Shareware differs from freeware, however, in that requests of voluntary "shareware fees" are asked, often as part of the program itself (this feature will lead the program to be called nagware?); sometimes, paying the fee and obtaining a password will result in access to expanded features, documentation, or support. In some cases, unpaid use of the software is limited in time--in which case the claim of the program to be free software seems very weak indeed.

On the other hand, supporters of the free software movement use "free software" to mean software that the user is permitted to copy, modify and redistribute. In this sense of the term, "free" refers to "freedom" rather than to a zero purchase price. See free software movement for more details. Members of the free software movement deny that freeware, and especially shareware, are properly called "free software"; they believe that only software in the sense of the free software movement can be regarded as free software.

This dual use of the term causes a great deal of confusion. The term "open source software" is often used to speak of free software in the second sense. Many English-speaking people in the open source community have taken to using two Spanish words for "free", as the English language is ambiguous in this regard. One, libre, is equivalent to "unconstrained". The other, gratis, is equivalent to "without charge".

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Last edited July 26, 2001 4:17 pm (diff)
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