Folks will want stuff that is easy to access and is "free", that is, most
people won't want to pay for stuff. The open part won't be very important to
the average user.
The FSF definition is okay
"Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute,
study, change and improve the software."
http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page
As long as the software is "free", which to most folks means don't have to pay,
then some folks will try it or use it.
So I guess the question is: what is your goal? If you want lots of people to
use the software, make it easy to find and get (and of course easy to use), and
don't add a lot of technical stuff about what "free" or "open" means. It won't
matter to most. Most will just want stuff they don't have to pay for.
If you want to educate the public, maybe have a link on the side saying "if you
want to learn more about what 'free' means, click here." There you can add
technical stuff.
Then the next question is, why do you need the average user to learn what
"free" or "open" means? What is the end game? Do you want people to vote
differently on something? To contribute money to okfn or fsf? To not use MS
Office?
Gene
________________________________
From: Rob Myers <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, November 29, 2013 6:54 PM
Subject: Re: [okfn-discuss] Free Software tools for OKFN -- please contribute
On 29/11/13 09:56 PM, Gene Shackman wrote:
>
> If you want to sell this to the public, you need a better term than
"free" (and not "libre"). Because people will think free means free to
use. "Free and open" might do it. Most people probably have some vague
idea what open means. Or "free and open source".
People will misunderstand Free precisely once. It's easy to explain.
"Open" is also potentially ambiguous, that's why there's the Open
Definition.
- Rob.
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