Quoting Nagarjuna :

From: "G." nagarjun@gnowledge.org

On 8/16/06, jtd jtd@mtnl.net.in wrote:

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• The word 'free' in Free software was about freedom and not

price

So in my case the ideology happened after 5 years of using the software. :-)

In essence, Free software and Open Source software mean the same thing.

They dont mean the same thing all though they refer to the same body of software.

I wish to add something here, something I learned in my graduate courses in Philosophy some 12 years ago. There is an expression called 'evening star', and another called 'morning star'. They both refer to the same thing, namely the planet, venus. Since this object appears first to the naked eye, and is very bright that can be seen even before dark, it is called by this name. The expressions have different meanings, but the same reference. But the name 'Planet Venus' clarifies that it is not a star, but planet, and the notiion of what astronomical objects are planet are well defined.

Actually, the concept of planet was not at all well defined, it wasn't defined at all reasonably until today, when a meeting of astronomers decided to include Xena, Charon and Ceres as planets, pushing the known planets total to 12.

Maybe the astrological significance of Free Software is aligned to this, which is why there is such argument and confusion about GNU and Linux.

--- Vickram