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Re: FOSS is not a neutral term


AVR’s original article.


I use the word “FOSS” deliberately, or sometimes I’ll say “DFSG-free” when I need to be very specific, or contrast it with “gratis” when that’s what I need to be specific about.


These days, I’ll even sometimes say what I used to never say: “open source”. When I need to quickly convey to someone what I mean and when it’s a term that they’ll understand, without the lecture.


FLOSS sounds gross, dental, and punny. What’s next, “TAMPON”?—“Transparently Available Modifiable Programming Open Notation?”


I used to say “free software” and “gnu slash linux”. I don’t anymore and that’s not due to ignorance. That’s from being deep in the swamp and finally getting out.


Preemptive strawdoll prevention: I do still think all published software should be DFSG-free. That’s the only thing the capital F capital S Free Software community got right. We need strong copyleft for the weak.♥︎ We kinda needed even stronger copyleft than we had. Things like Safari or Android that could cherry pick the FOSS raisins and mix them into their proprietary goop has become the deadliest competitor. They took embrace&extend to the extreme. Before the empire came up with that idea, we were running circles around them.


Distro Name


This part added a few weeks later but I just remembered the feeling twenty years ago feeling awkward when I wanted to say GNU/Linux in a context that expected to hear Linux so I’d more often just say the distro name, “I use Debian!” and if people asked I’d say “It’s a distribution of GNU/Linux”. And now when it’s the other way around, when I’ve sobered up and I wanna say Linux but more and more of the world has hopped on the “It’s GNU/Linux” train, I can still resort to the same solution. I use Debian.♥︎

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