this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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The thing I find hard to convey is that FLOSS software is superior to proprietary software for many reasons, most of which are non-technical: FLOSS software is superior to proprietary software if it isn't spying on you, if it's governance is collective, if it's not build to make you pay for things that should be free, if it lets you decide where your data goes, etc...
we're often missing the point when we attempt at side-by-side comparison of FLOSS and proprietary software.. It's usually one-dimentional, and playing on our opponent's field: these companies racketing their users based on rent-based exploitative business models will always have more resources than independant developpers to improve "UX/UI"... so I think this must not be the only prism through which reading these things.
Sorry, noob question, Free Open Source Software vs Free Libre Open Source Software... Free and Libre are synonyms to my mind so I must be missing something. What's the difference?
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.