First off, welcome to the Open Source forum here. As many of you know, and perhaps a few of you are just learning, Linux is all about Open Source. This does NOT, however, mean that everything is free, or that ALL unixes are about open source..
So what's the difference? There's a big one, actually... First, when people talk about free, in the Open Source community, there's 2 types of free they mean...
Free as in Speech: This means you have a certain freedom to do whatever you want with something, usually, source code. This means you can modify it to your liking, alter the program, and even use that code inside other applications you're writing. You may be requested (or required) to post your changes and provide back to the community, but you have the freedom to do what you wish with the code, so long as it doesn't violate anybody else's rights (things like claiming ownership of it, saying you wrote it, etc)
Free as in Beer: This means that something is free for you to download and use. Generally this applies to products, or something conceptually real. No other rights are guaranteed.
Note the difference between the two: The first one doesn't guarantee that it's not something you have to pay for. In fact, it doesn't say anything about the price at all. The software that may be free as in speech may costs thousands of dollars. It's only "free" so much as you being able to tinker with it and alter it to your specific needs. However, the software that is free as in beer is free for you to download and use, but doesn't guarantee you have the right to change it, modify it, or anything else other than use it as-is. That is the biggest difference between the types of "free" in the Open Source world. Open Source generally implies the 1st type of free (speech), while typing it as open source (lowercase) doesn't always have that connotation.
I hope this forum will be used to discuss the differences between Open Source licenses, what the good points are, the bad points, and other things related to it, as well as general Open Source software. For the record, most windows software is the 2nd type of free, and it sucks. Windows devs haven't realized what being Open Source can provide to them yet (peer reviews, faster bug fixes, faster secuirty fixes (and of course faster exploits against the product). Generally, the products mature faster.
So, rules:
1) No flaming other people based on opinions. Opinions are like a** holes. Everybody has one, and they usually stink.
2) No posting of illegal software, etc. Gaia's TOS is clear. Just because something may be free as in speech, doesn't mean it's free as in beer, and that would still make it warez/illegal to download.
3) Discussions which are going round in circles are not encouraged. Sometimes in issues of philosophy (which Open Source really is), the only way to get along is to agree to disagree. Please be respectful.
4) For technical help with Open Source software, please see the Tech Support forum.
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