Free as in Beer?

[Disch]

Have you guys seen this ad? It's on these forums.

It says "Free as in Beer. Splunk 4 Free is Here." and has some guy holding up a glass of beer.

What does free have to do with beer? Beer isn't free.

What does that program have to do with beer?

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out wtf they're talking about. Is it a joke? Is it going over my head? Is it some weird expression I never heard before?

Every time I see that ad it confuses me. It's making me crazy!

Can anyone explain it?

[gcampton]

It's a Linux thing. Linux is free ....

"Free as in freedom, software." not "Free as in Free Beer."

So instead of advertising freedom software (open source), they are promoting freeware (which is simply a free program with closed source) using a Linux expression... makes perfect sense eh ?

[Disch]

What does beer have to do with Linux?

[chrisname]

Nothing. "Free as in freedom, not as in beer" is something Richard Stallman came up with. If something is "free software," it doesn't have to be free as in free beer (that is, you can still charge money for it); it just has to be licensed under a "free software" license, e.g. GPL or X11. For something to be "Free as in beer" it just has to have no cost of ownership.

Linux, Firefox and most of the best free software programs are "Free as in freedom and as in beer."

[Bazzy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_vs_libre#.22Free_as_in_beer.22_vs_.22Free_as_in_speech.22

[helios]

Damn you, Rimmis, and your gratuitous Spanish! Does your faggotry know no bounds?

[Disch]

Okay so it was some weird expression I never heard of before.

Thanks for clearing it up guys.