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Who is Tracy Reed?: I am an information infrastructure architect, Linux enthusiast, a pilot, and a traveller. I work for Copilot Computing where we do really cool things with technology. I am interested in all aspects of computing and technology in general, especially Linux. As an avid pilot I can be found somewhere over the skies of the southwestern US most weekends. As a traveller I have been all over the world. Check out my photo gallery. Want to get me something cool? Check out my Amazon.com wishlist!

Free Software and the DoD

Slashdot, Free Software, and the Department of Defense...

I read http://slashdot.org every day because it has a lot of interesting news about the computer business and computer culture.

Today there was an article about how the US Department of Defense (that's the military) is sometimes afraid to use "Open Source" software which is what some people call Linux:

DoD Wary of That "Open" Word

They say that some military types do not like the word "open" because it sounds insecure and dangerous. So I replied that maybe we should be using the phrase "Free Software" to describe what Linux is which was the original term for it until maybe 7 years ago when a guy named Eric Raymond made the phrase "Open Source" popular. Many people really liked my comment and gave it a very high score. Many people have replied to it. But the best reply so far is this one:

"Free Software" intentionally invokes Cold War

He talks about Free Software, freedom, the Cold War, communism, etc. Very interesting discussion and ideas.

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Posted by treed on 2006-09-17 13:34

Free Source

Posted by Manuel at 2006-10-12 15:29

What about Free Source? It seems to hit the nail on the head better in terms of description.

"I want an Internet. Can I have one of those?" -- Spice Girl Mel B., aka Scary Spice, pointing to a monitor during an AOL press conference

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