would someone kindly clarify this paragaph, please (RH business model)

[Mike A. Harris]

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003, Elton Woo wrote:

>"Open source software is not free. Though freedom may be an abstract concept 
>for commercial products, it can be ideal for software. Free software means no 
>one company can fully own and conceal it. Software lock-in is impossible."
>
>I have just read, and re-read the above statement four times, and I still
>don't understand it.
>Here's the link:
>
>http://www.redhat.com/about/mission/business_model.html
>
>What I see with my eyes, have read, and (hopefully) understood is:
>"Open source software is NOT free". This statement is copied
>and pasted directly _as is_ from the Red Hat web page. Are my 
>eyes deceiving me, or am I NOT understanding something here?
>
>... and NO, I am *not* being sarcastic. I honestly can not understand
>that statement.

I read the page now also, and I think it is a bit confusing 
although I do know what was intended by the statement.  What was 
intended is something like "Open source software is not always 
free of cost, however it is always free in the sense of the 
liberty one has with the source code."  The statement as present 
on the web page I believe assumes too much from the reader, and 
should be clarified.

The truth of the matter is, that open source software is ALWAYS 
"free" in any definition of the word.  Even when you *pay* for 
OSS, you have the option of obtaining it at no cost via download 
if you desire in source code form at a bare minimum.

"free" is an overloaded buzzword nowadays and is confusing to 
people as it isn't always clear what definition of the word 
"free" is intended.  Personally I think people using such phrases 
should either avoid the word free, or explain precicely what they 
mean by 'free' in their statements, such as using phrases "free 
of cost" and "freedom of liberty" in place of just "free".

That makes things much clearer.

So my interpretation of the web page, which is most likely 
correct, is that it's trying to say "Open source software is not 
always free of cost, but that it provides one with software 
liberty via source code access."


-- 
Mike A. Harris     ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat