Some evangelism this week as well. Picked up a glove dropped by Nicklas Lundblad. Lundblad wrote an article published in the Swedish equivalent of ComputerWorld, Computer Sweden.

Anyway, Lundblad wrote a confused article on free software, mixing it with both open source, Eric S Raymond and free as in gratis. I just felt I had to set the record straight, why I wrote a 8000+ characters text explaining the fundamentals of free software, the difference from open source and the concept of source code as an architecture (the Lessig theory). Basically, I state that Richard M Stallman is not an idiot and that RMS knows that not everyone will start to code new Microsoft Word programs if the source code is available, but that freedoms are important in a society even when not everyone is excercising his or her rights.

Something like that .-)

Further, some thoughts on the need for businesses to grasp this concept and a possible need for other regulation if nothing happens over time.

I named my article "Fri programvara ar inte gratis" (Free software is not gratis).

I hope this clear things up a little.

Following my reply was two different replies from Mr Lundblad. Lundblad wrote one reply for my longer version article and one for the shorter version.

If you understand Swedish you might want to read something of this:

My article - long version (published at www.idg.se) .

My article - shorter version (published in Computer Sweden).

Nicklas Lundblads original article (published in Computer Sweden).

Nicklas Lundblads reply (published at www.idg.se).

Nicklas Lundblads second reply (published in Computer Sweden).