[OT] Free Office suite for Linux and Windows

[Richmond]

On 09/12/13 20:15, Mark Schonewille wrote:
> Hi Richmond,
>
> Probably it means free as in (free) beer, rather than free as in free 
> speech. I should say, though, that free as in beer is fine for me in 
> many cases.
>
> -- 
> Best regards,
>
> Mark Schonewille
>
> Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
> Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer
> KvK: 50277553
>

I am no "purer" than the next man if we're talking about Richard Stallman's
hijacking of the word 'Free' so it means 'Free' as resemanticised by 
Richard Stallman.

I have always understood 'Free' as meaning 'you don't have to pay 
anything for it'.

I have always thought that 'Free' and 'Open Source' were not synonymous.

If 'Free' is taken to mean "do what you like with it', open source 
software is generally not
'Free' as I am legally bound (for the sake of argument) not to take 
Livecode Community,
stick a label on the front which says "Richmond's Magic Thing", lock the 
code, and tell people
they should pay $1000 to have a copy.

I am on the look out for something for which I don't have to pay, does 
most of the things the big, clunky,
RAM-hungry office suites do, and isn't as tatty round the edges as Abiword.

As long as I don't have to pay for the thing I could not care less about 
whether I can muck around
with its code, repackage it, redistribute it, and so on . . . mainly 
because I have no urge whatsoever to
do anything with an office suite than type documents and faff around 
with spreadsheets.

Richmond.