this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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And yet here you are, using “literally” to mean “figuratively.” Excuse me for not accepting your linguistic authority on the immutability of other words.
No, I absolutely am not. There is no path to any future where someone will be wrong to use the word "free" to describe software that doesn't cost anything.
Meanings fall out of use (which hasn't happened here) They don't become invalidated. They're not capable of becoming invalidated.
Whether or not its "invalid" isn't the point. Those are the accepted terms by most people, especially those in the industry. The point of language is to communicate ideas.
When most people say "free software", they're talking about software that's free as in freedom. Using it otherwise just causes unnecessary confusion.
If by "most people" you mean the general population, you are absolutely wrong. Hell, even software devs (at least in the US) would fight with you unless they themselves are interested in FOSS.
When the average Joe pays nothing for an item that they want, regardless of whether that item can be modified, they will say that the item is free. To your average Joe, software is yet another item.
Yeah that's why I threw "especially those in industry".
Either way if you're not writing software then yeah sorry your input matters less on the language we use to describe it.
I'm not gonna walk over to a doctors office and start arguing that the language they use is wrong because it doesn't line up with what I know as a layperson.