Existing terms
Free software
GNU prefers to use the term "
Free software". The reason for me not to use this term are:
- The abreviation is "FS", which is ambiguous. "FS" is often used as the abreviation for "filesystem".
- The term does not tell you directly, that you also have access to the source (main reason one).
- I think people can easily think free software is just free as in "nothing to pay for it" (main reason two).
- I do not like to pronounce it. Think about "I've like effess." Nothing my tongue likes.
Open source software
I liked to use the term "
Open source software"
some time. Perhaps because it was used often to talk about what I
associate with GPL'ed or BSD-licensed software. But then, one day, I
found out about the above mentioned GNU free software definition and I
began to think about both terms. In contrast to free software, open
source software (OSS) is much more known, but my reasons not to use it
are:
- It lacks the "free as in copy it as you like" definition (main reason).
- I think about the "Open sound system", if I read "OSS", which is not what I want to talk about.