Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Amusing Free Software Story

[Will Hill]

Excellent. "Free software" works just fine.  Brand flipping is a loss.  It 
gains no new adherents and confuses the people drifting at the edges who you 
might have mobilized.  It would be foolish to dropping the term "free 
software" because the bullies have mounted a propaganda campaign against it.  
The term "freeware" is fading away with Windows.  

The "Free World" was very well defined by cold war rhetoric.  The non free 
world was governed by centralized autocracies that treated people like wear 
parts.  People fought and died for the kinds of freedom defined in the US 
Bill of Rights.  Non free software is giving us a world nastier than East 
Germany.  You don't want to lose resonance with that, regardless of how 
disgracefully the free world countries may have behaved lately.  The 
principles are something we should all stand on.  In English speaking 
countries, this still carries weight.  

Libre is a fine term.  It calls to mind all sorts of good things.  

On Tuesday 17 March 2015, rysiek wrote:
> I have a different take on this: we either stand our ground and fight for
> our language, or we *will* get pushed off of the next term, and the next,
> and the next.
>
> Look what's happening with "open". Openwashing is a huge problem. We can
> move to "libre", but sooner or later the very same dynamic will take over.
> At some point we *will* have to make a stand.
>
> So we might as well make a stand here, with "free software".