Free as in Beer

Mon 1/6/14 12:32 pm. I never understood the phrase, beloved of the FOSS and particularly the Stallmanites. The distinction is supposed to be between holy things like speech and software, in the sense of “free from tyranny” and, on the other hand, contemptible materialist goods like beer, which under some conditions can have a price of $0, but aren’t truly free to the endless sorrow of us superior philosopher kings. ... I’m guessing some particularly irksome example like Microsoft “giving away” internet explorer got the ever-excitable Stallman in a tizzy. ... I have already explained somewhere in the endless thumbsucking that is my web site — well actually in the FOSS reference — that as a barefoot boy on Broadway I got no free beer and perhaps it reflects the refined university experience where one might get free beer — and, I might add, hot and cold running ethernet connections right there on the lab and dorm walls, which is why it doesn’t matter that Linux can’t connect through your laptop’s wireless....

But sadly, in this mortal world of shadow and light, we will have no free high-minded things without free markets. That’s why I could never understand the phrase. But the socialist religious know that not only are free markets unnecessary for freedom, they are a positive antagonist. Why my goodness, they titter, just look at the Soviet Union! Free as a bird and a good life for everyone!