XPost: comp.os.linux.advocacy, comp.sys.mac.advocacy   
   From: robin_listas@es.invalid   
      
   On 11/02/2020 17.49, F Russell wrote:   
   > On Tue, 11 Feb 2020 15:35:43 +0000, Arlen Holder wrote:   
      
   ...   
      
      
   >> the distinction doesn't matter all that much to the user.   
   >>   
   >   
   > To a lot of users it may not matter.  All they want is some "free   
   > beer."   
   >   
   > But for a lot of others it does matter.  They recognize and strongly   
   > appreciate the idea of GNU and FOSS.  Hopefully they will contribute   
   > in some way even if only though a donation to the FSF.   
      
   For example, I use certain freeware software to watch tv programming   
   from my ISP. The person that did this software has disappeared, thus   
   that good software is dead in the water and nobody can continue the   
   work; the software has faults, needs corrections, nobody can do them. He   
   did not publish the sources, he did not even publish the investigation   
   that allowed him to create the software. He wanted them secret.   
      
   That would not happen in "Free" software, as we would have the source   
   and /maybe/ someone would want to continue the work.   
      
   That's a practical distinction between Free and Freeware.   
      
   --   
   Cheers, Carlos.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)