• rtxn@lemmy.worldM
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    2 days ago

    English is a horrible language full of ambiguity. F/LOSS is libre, but not necessarily gratis.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      Isn’t it usually the opposite, gratis (because if it’s open source, you could just build it yourself, unless there’s a proprietary build env or hosted env) but not necessarily libre (because of the license?)

      So wouldn’t gratis normally be the superset of libre.

      Then there’s a set of gratis but not open source… someone should do a venn diagram.

      • iopq@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I could potentially just say it costs money to use this software, but allow you to build it yourself if you don’t want to

        It’s called Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in case you were wondering

          • iopq@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Okay, I’d have to think of a more pure example, but you get the idea. Downloads and support not free, but compile it yourself if you want

            • SparroHawc@lemmy.zip
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              17 hours ago

              Oh, there’s plenty of examples on mobile app stores. Since it costs to get your app on it, there’s a natural barrier to entry for FOSS - so the people who do put it up sometimes charge for it despite the source being readily available.

        • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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          2 days ago

          Wait, but persona non gratis can’t possibly mean a person who isn’t free as in beer, can it? You can’t have Me for free, I’ll only sell My sex for money.

          • unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml
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            2 days ago

            Actually, both “persona non grata” (latin has cases) and “gratis coffee/beer/bootloader” both make sense.

            Just convert the “x is gratis” into “you’re welcome to [relevant-action-verb] x”.

            As in, “The kernel is gratis” = “You’re free to [use] the Kernel” (which is basically “it’s free” in everyday english).

            For “Persona non grata” it would be “(You’re a) person not welcome (to [come] here)”.

            This is what it originally meant. It has nothing to do with price and everything to do with gratuity. I (a provider) am grateful to you and welcome you to use/come/see/do/whatever.

            “Gratis” would be the ketchup packet at McDonalds - they’re happy you paid for a burger so they’ll give you a ketcup packet as they’re grateful you did.

          • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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            2 days ago

            Persona non grata means person not welcome.

            Gratis is free of charge, or you are welcome to take it.

    • hakase@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      All natural human languages have ambiguity. English is no better or worse than any other.