14.1. Livre Versus GratisIt is interesting to look at the terms that were used for freedomfree and openboth highly overloaded. Many corporations and developers are still confused because "free software" is not necessarily without cost, and "open source software" is not necessarily related to open standards or the simple ability to inspect the source code. Developers in Brazil had an easier time coming up with a term. Livre is the Portuguese word for free as in freedom, and gratis (from the Latin gratis) is the word for "no cost." No one doubts that "software livre" is a way to achieve freedom, not savings. Maybe because livre is so obviously a good thing, the idea of software freedom spread throughout the country, and successfully reached companies, developers, and especially government policy makers. On the other hand, Portuguese for open sourcecódigo abertois much harder to grasp, because it can have different connotations. This is reflected in the fact that the vast majority of the Brazilian FOSS movement uses the expressions software livre and free software, and much less frequently, open source, although most people do consider these interchangeable. But why discuss terms now? Wasn't this debated over and over when the term open source was coined back in 1998? Haven't we had enough time already to sort them out and be clear on what we mean? Maybe we have, but that discussion took place in the developer community, where the terms were defined. Now, we're not talking only to developers, we're discussing with governments. And companies. And judges, lawyers, and politicians....But more important than that, we are now discussing more than free software, we are really discussing livre, liberdade, freedom. |