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Free Beer redirects here. See Vores Øl for the open source beer.


Gratis versus Libre is the distinction between '''no cost''' and '''freedom''', a distinction not made by the word Free in the English language.

This distinction is of utmost importance in dealing with Information as Property . ''Gratis'' is borrowed from Latin, and ''libre'' is borrowed from Spanish or French.


GRATIS

Gratis is an Adjective in Latin and various Romance and Germanic Language s meaning Free , in the sense that one does not have to pay for some good or service (''free of charge'').


LIBRE

Libre is a word in various Romance Languages , e.g. Spanish and French (descended from the Latin word ''līber'') that denotes the state of being free, as in "having Freedom ". GNU Programmer s often talk about Free Speech (libre) and free as in beer, as the word ''free'' in English does not distinguish between these meanings. Free Software (with a capital F) usually means the former.


FREE AS IN BEER VERSUS FREE AS IN SPEECH

In Hacker Slang , another common term for ''gratis'' is ''free as in beer''.
''Free as in beer'' refers to things which are available at no monetary cost (like free beer at a party). It can be contrasted with the expressions ''free as in speech'', ''free as in freedom'', or ''free as in rights'', which refer to something which is Free of restrictions, as in the Freedom Of Speech .

Since the advent of the Free Software Movement , these terms have entered frequent use for categorising Computer Program s according to the License s and Legal Fetters that cover them, and both this expression and the term ''gratis'' are used to distinguish Freeware (gratis Software ) from Free Software .


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