Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Amusing Free Software Story

[Aaron Wolf]

> As soon as "libre" will start to be recognizable at large, "libre-washing" 
> *will* start. Partly due to misunderstanding of the term, partly due to 
> conscious manipulation of people/organisations trying to profit from it 
> without really heeding its values.
> 
> And I am not saying we should not use "libre" -- au contraire! But IMVHO we 
> should definitely not say "the term free is lost, too many people use it in 
> the wrong sense".
> 

Libre-washing is *far* less likely than free-washing and open-washing
because the term is less ambigious.

You completely miss the point about "free is lost" — "free" was never
ours or never good to begin with. It was unclear from before the Free
Software movement existed. Free is not any worse now than it ever was.
It didn't get bad over time, it was inadequate the same way forever.
Same with "open" which was also unclear and vague the entire time. There
was *not* a process from which these words were clear and then got
muddied. They were *never* clear to start with. Thus, regardless of some
amount of potential Libre-washing, it is simply not the same situation.