Re: [tlug] Poll: OpenOffice or LibreOffice?

[Bruno Raoult <braoult@example.com>]

On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 1:00 AM,  <fgs@example.com> wrote:
> There is this one thing I'd like to say about the original thread subject;
>
> Although I deploy " LibreOffice " in my network with confidence that it took
> over from the OpenOffice project, which I used since my day-1 at Linux world
> (circa 1998) and I know, yet-to-be-defunct, first time I heard the word
> "libre" I found an unfortunate mistake.
>
> Problem here is this being a key project to the Linux environment. Never quite
> understood what they meant by "libre". Free from corporate culture perhaps?
> Why not " FreeOffice ", then? Like " FreeNAS " and other frees... Now people
> talking about " LibreSSH " makes me wonder and actually worry what these
> people want to state by "libre". "Libre" as some reactionary word?

I don't understand you: English language has the same word ("free") that other
languages express differently. "Libre" and "gratuit" are not linked in
French, so
there is no need to precise "free as beer" or "free as freedom".
If "libre" word disturbs you, maybe you would prefer "gratuit"? Like Skype ?

I prefer to make the difference with simple words, when language accepts it.

Free for LibreOffice, or GNU/Linux?
Free for Skype, or Flash?

You like to mix the 2 meanings?
The choice of "libre" is not bad for me (not because it is French: any
language expressing
freedom would have been fine. "free" is not so clear in English).

> ... Because if there is one thing we can do to blow this up overnight is to
> associate Linux with some anti-market, anti-capitalism sort of thing... China
> just recently retaliated M$FTWinXP's end-of-life with a ban on Windows v.8
> for their government computers. That is to say, a landmark opportunity for
> Linux desktop ( http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/ubuntu-kylin ) but hopefully in
> a responsible manner.

Being "libre" or "gratuit" does not mean in any way "anti-market, or
anti-capitalist".
They are not linked to a politic opinion.

> That's one Linux aspect I've always felt quite uneasy about.

Therefore you will hate "Linux-libre", and like "Trisquel"
distribution, for naming
only (they are similar). Or you could reconsider the "trisquel" name
after all, if
you find an anti-government meaning in its Breton meaning.

br.

-- 
2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2.