On Fri, 5 Jan 2024 17:45:21 -0500
Steve Litt <slitt@???> wrote:


> Free as in beer, free as in liberty, AND reasonably POSIX compliant!
> Linux is such a gift.

No, it s definitely NOT FREE BEER. Please do not use that phase.

No matter how small the costs, there is still a cost in obtaining
'linux'. Whether it is/was floppies, CDs, DVDs, comms fees, data
fees, etc. Then for normal people, there is still a significant amount
of frustration installing and keeping it running, which may require a
significant amount of non-free beer to relieve.

I know of a LUG president/convener who decreed "Free Beer and we are
not longer charging for the install fests". He assumed that someone
was going to continually door knock Google, Canonical, whomever to
pay for annual costs of incorporation, public liability insurance, hall
hire costs, etc. In a couple of years, the LUG went from 350+ at each
monthly meeting to not troubling superman in sharing his phonebox and
their online presence also decayed badly.

Linux definitely has a costs. DEVUAN doesn't exist for free.