Talk:The Free Software Definition

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] 2002 comment: this page is smelly

This page is smelly. First, it contains verbatim text, which is not something for Wikipedia. Second, the text does not allow editing (see notice at the bottom), so it's really not something for Wikipedia. Putting simply a link to the text here is useless; it would be more useful to have links at Free Software or Free Software Foundation. Finally, this article is only linked from a Talk: page.

My proposal for cleaning up: redirect the article to Free Software, put a link there to the definition website; same for Free Sofware Foundation.

Any other suggestions? Jeronimo 00:09 Aug 16, 2002 (PDT)

I would tend to agree, unless there's something of substance to say about the definition that wouldn't just be a paragraph (or less) in one of the above articles. The only link to it is from Talk:Copyright, where its raison d'être appears to be as part of a rhetorical question by the Cunctator. --Brion

[edit] Date of first publication

The first publication was in issue #6 of the Gnus bulletin, which http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/ shows was the January 1989 edition. Gronky 12:16, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] roosevelt's four freedoms?

Some people say that FSF's "four freedoms" is a play on words referencing the Four Freedoms speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt (former USA president). I don't see the similarity, beyond the superficial similarities of there being four points, and the topic being freedom, so I don't accept the claim. Also, the only reference I can find is by a free software developer who wrote a FAQ see Q34. But I wanted to note it here in case someone else also knows of better reference to say if FSF's 4Fs are at all a reference to FdR's 4Fs. Gronky 10:32, 11 October 2006 (UTC)