To most people obtaining Maxima from sourceforge (or somewhere else), it
will be evident that Maxima is free because they weren't asked for money
when they downloaded it. This appears to be free, (in English or Latin,
gratis), or in FSF attempt to clarify, "free as in free beer".
Most people have no intention of adding secret routines to Maxima and
reselling it, and so the nuances of "free as in free speech" are quite
irrelevant.
Any person who might think of doing something that is possibly in violation
of GPL should be told to look at some license, and not left to puzzle over
the meaning of free.
Perhaps "The Maxima interactive computer algebra system is a free and
open-source version Macsyma (type describe(license); to see license terms
for redistribution of modified versions)."
RMS or FSF might wish to restrict your use of the term free to correspond to
their definition, but the details do not matter unless you plan to
redistribute.
I personally find the definition of free by FSF as somewhat Orwellian.
Defining freedom as something that forces you to do something you may or may
not want to do.
But back to the historical blurb. Thanking Bill Schelter is a fine idea.
The current interactive software convention seems to me to just hide such
stuff under help> about. For a non-GUI interface, how about a first line
suggesting describe(about); ?
RJF
> -----Original Message-----
> From: maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu
> [mailto:maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu] On Behalf Of Pol
> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 2:29 AM
> To: maxima at math.utexas.edu
> Subject: Re: [Maxima] Wording of Schelter note
>
> Jaime Villate wrote:
> >
> > There are 5 references to "open source" and 243 references to "free
> > software" in the current Maxima source.
>
> That probably means that many developers, overenthusiastic in
> what they were
> doing, never paused over the meaning and the deep
> implications of the two
> expressions.
>
> regards
> --
> Pol
>
> _______________________________________________
> Maxima mailing list
> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
>