Dear list,
Please help me overcome a mental block. In the context of software, unlike in the context of most other "products", the term "free" has had, for at least 30 years (i.e. at least as long as the FSF has been active), a particular meaning. Broadly speaking, it means "libre", and specifically it means "in compliance with the Four Freedoms". Elsewhere within the context of products, and in the minds of many lay people (even in the context of software), it usually means "gratis". I was trying to think of terms that have comparably distinct meanings within the context of software, in order to help explain this distinction to people. However, the most comprehensible example I could come up with was "bug", which in the case of software means "defect" and outside that context would probably be assumed to mean a "arthropod" or "creepy-crawly". Unfortunately, that's a negative example. Using it risks one's interlocutor subconsciously linking "free" with "bug" and "libre" with "defect"! Therefore, I would be grateful for suggestions of English words with largely positive connotations that I might use in place of "bug" to illustrate the existence of broadly software-specific meanings. If this has already been discussed before, please instead link me to the relevant discussion(s). Thanks! Sam Pablo Kuper
