Comment by neilv

With branding like "free software", it could have have lost the battle for hearts and minds for that reason alone, if not for all the other reasons.

Of course the public thinks "free software" is software for which you do not pay money.

And everyone immediately goes on their way with their downloads, without you getting the chance to give your hour-long spiel on "I'm glad you asked what I mean by 'free software'."

Because no one would ever ask what "free software" means, because they already know what it means.

It is the advocates who are terrible at advocacy who keep trying to give a term new meaning, and failing for a few decades to get the public to understand or pay attention.

You could even say that's the philosophical/awareness barrier, right there: people thinking in terms of free software, rather than in terms of Free Software(tm)(R).

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