Re: What so special about PostgreSQL and other RDBMS?

"Noons" <wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam> wrote in message news:40b9da1e$0$8985$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au...
> Galen Boyer allegedly said,on my timestamp of 30/05/2004 5:16 AM:
>
> >
> > They can't sell free software. They can sell ope-source
> > software.
>
> YES!!!!!!! At LAST, someone uses the PROPER term!
> I was almost getting desperate that no one picked
> the obvious problem here!

Perhaps because it is not obvious, and Galen isn't right?

I hate to mention it, but last time I looked "free" had 19 different meanings in the *concise* OED. And the one about not involving money is number 7 in the list.

You and Galen happen to have decided amongst yourselves, in that scratch-and-match way you described in another part of the thread, that "free" means "costing nothing", and nothing else. As we discovered elsewhere in the thread, you did much the same for the word "sell".

If 'sell' doesn't necessarily involve payment, and free doesn't necessarily involve costing nothing, then it is almost certainly just fine to sell free software.

Unlike our beloved cousins the French, we don't have a geriatic bunch of professors in an Acadamie telling us what is and is not "proper" use of English. So phrases can come and go as they like, and so long as we all know what is meant by them, the language gets richer accordingly. So yes, they can sell free software. They can sell open-source software. And we can let the "market" decide which is easier to say or which is clearer of meaning.

Here's a little test to demonstrate the process: which of these pieces of software are free: Internet Explorer, Open Office, MS Media Player, Fedora Core 1, Acrobat Reader?

Regards
HJR Received on Sun May 30 2004 - 16:39:22 CDT