1996
Richard Stallman: "free as in speech, not beer"
Richard Stallman clarifies free softwareSoftware users can run, study, modify, and share — emphasizes user freedom, not just zero price. as freedom to use and modify code — not zero price.
Quote
“Think of 'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer.'”
What it was for
The phrase appears in GNU philosophy writing and talks as Stallman fought the confusion between gratis downloads and user freedom. It still surfaces in every LGPL vs MITMassachusetts Institute of Technology — a research university central to many computing breakthroughs. license thread.
People
- Richard Stallman — founder
Companies
- Free Software Foundation
Why it's here
Stallman's most effective one-liner for a politically loaded term.
Why it mattered
It separated libre from gratis in open-source debates for decades.
What it solved
Businesses and users conflated 'free softwareSoftware users can run, study, modify, and share — emphasizes user freedom, not just zero price.' with unpaid products.
Media
ImageRichard StallmanPatafisik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- Richard Stallman publishes the GNU ManifestoMarch 1985
- GPL version 1 publishedFebruary 1989