Some Bible study programs are gratis, but not libre. Others cost $30, right on up to hundreds of dollars - and that's just for the base modules. Worse, most of these programs can only run on one or two operating systems.

The Free Software Foundation Europe is calling on European Free Software businesses to participate in a survey of business attitudes towards the acceptability of including patents in industry standards.

This survey is a key component of a study that will play the major role in the EC's reform of standardisation policy. It is open until September 17.

The free software community understands that free software gives the user more freedom than proprietary software. Proprietary software confines its users, prohibits them from making changes that would allow everyone to benefit, etc. Free software advocates (myself included) have a habit of claiming that using free (libre) software means the same thing as having freedom.

It is now 30 years since I launched the campaign for freedom in computing, that is, for software to be free or “libre” (we use that word to emphasize that we’re talking about freedom, not price). Some proprietary programs, such as Photoshop, are very expensive; others, such as Flash Player, are available gratis — either way, they subject their users to someone else’s power.

Cyberspace, November 8, 2010—Linux hasn't got any Freer between the Linux-2.6.33-libre announcement, back in March, and the present announcement, that marks the release of Linux-2.6.36-libre. Linux now contains more non-Free Software, and more drivers in its Free core that require separately distributed non-Free Software to function.

FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) is arguably one of the best examples of open, collaborative, internationally distributed production and development. FLOSS provides numerous benefits for developing countries, such as low cost, adaptability, and a free-of-charge high quality training environment, as shown by the FP6 FLOSSWORLD study.

"A debate often heard among FOSS evangelists across the world, is that using software is about "free as in freedom, not free as in beer". The libre vs. gratis argument rings no less true for some of the richest corporations in the world."

With Independence Day coming up, I want to do a series of posts about freedom and what "free software" actually means. The English language is weak in the area of freedom, so when somebody says "free software" they think "free of charge" or "gratis" (to use the Latin term for the concept), which can really throw you, since most free software is available to anyone without monetary cost.

"The “Trophées du Libre” ceremony supports innovative Free software by awarding generous prizes to free software projects..."