this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
1072 points (97.8% liked)
Open Source
31359 readers
5 users here now
All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!
Useful Links
- Open Source Initiative
- Free Software Foundation
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Software Freedom Conservancy
- It's FOSS
- Android FOSS Apps Megathread
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to the open source ideology
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
In general, "free" vs "libre" is intended to distinguish a difference between something offered free-of-charge (gratis e.g. proprietary freeware) from something guaranteeing user freedom (libre).
In my experience, "free software" typically refers to FLOSS and intellectual property with a restrictive license in alignment with the free software movement, whereas FOSS refers to "free-of-charge open-source software" and is a more generic term that could, for example, apply to restricted/proprietary intellectual property which is publically visible (i.e. arguably "open") yet may not necessarily use a software license permitting its implementation in external intellectual property.
Having said all that, many things commonly labeled FOSS could also be labeled FLOSS. It may either be a hopeless battle of semantics or a meaningful distinction, depending on one's perspective.