Comments on: Ubuntu makes the NYT http://www.withoutatraceroute.com/2009/01/ubuntu-makes-the-nyt/ Time to live. Sat, 06 Sep 2014 18:43:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0 By: Cheryl http://www.withoutatraceroute.com/2009/01/ubuntu-makes-the-nyt/comment-page-1/#comment-385 Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:47:18 +0000 http://www.withoutatraceroute.com/?p=1815#comment-385 So, I was thinking about the whole “free as in beer” versus “free as in freedom” thing. Here in Denmark, and in Norway, the two concepts are expressed by entirely different words: “gratis” as in beer; “fri” as in freedom. (I expect it is the same in Sweden, but with more diereses – Swedish, as far as I can tell, is like Norwegian with a bad case of syphilis.) France also makes the distinction (“bière gratuit”; “amour libre”); German, as far as I can tell, does not (“frei Bier”; “Arbeit macht frei”… I could choose better examples, couldn’t I?). Incidentally, when I typed “free beer” into google translate, the translation came out as “Bier”; the only logical conclusion is that all beer in Germany is free, rendering the adjective unnecessary. See you in Munich, and the first round’s on me.

Ask an average Brit the meaning of free software, and he will say that it’s software you don’t have to pay for. Either that or he’ll fart, call you a geek, and turn back to the football. My ever-helpful team of Nordic nerd buddies, however, inform me that the Norwegian translation is “fri programvare” – in other words, “free as in freedom”, and entirely free (if you’ll pardon the expression) of cost connotations. Could it be we Brits and Americans are inclined to confuse liberty with getting something for nothing? And, if so, which came first – the attitude or the semantics?

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