Gratis/Libre

[Matthew Flaschen]

The Ubuntu documentation in general seems to be very careless about the
distinction between gratis and Free/libre/open source.  For example,
about-ubuntu.xml says "The Ubuntu project is entirely committed to the
principles of open source software development; people are encouraged to
use open source software, improve it, and pass it on. This means that
Ubuntu is and will always be free of charge."

But being open source doesn't mean being gratis (no charge).  The Open
Source Definition explicitly says open source software can be sold.
There's nothing wrong with Ubuntu saying they want to be open source and
gratis, but they're not the same thing.

Similarly, this document goes on to say "Free software" doesn't
just mean that you shouldn't have to pay for it."  Free software
*doesn't* mean you don't have to pay for it.  The FSF explicitly rejects
that idea, as shown by http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html .

There's similar text on the website, such as on the home page, which
says "Ubuntu is Free Software, and available to you free of charge.
[...] Ubuntu team really does believe that Free software should be free
of software licencing charges."  This is confusing selling copies with
charging for licensing.  Free software is inherently free of licensing
charges, since you don't have to pay again for each computer you install
the software on.

That doesn't mean you can't charge for the media.  In fact, saying
Ubuntu is free of charge is just wrong, since it sells CD's.  The
philosophy page says "For Ubuntu, the "free" in "free software" is used
primarily in reference to freedom and not to price" which is similarly
hinting that the "free" in Free software can mean gratis.

Unless this confusion is deliberate (hopefully not), I really think it
should be corrected.

Matthew Flaschen

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