For those of you who know me, I work very hard to speak very precisely. As such, I become frustrated at the repeated abuse (incorrect use) of terms. Among these, it is my opinion that there is some abuse among the terms "free", "open source", and, well, "free" (yes, I am repeating myself) in the context of software. I am going to provide my definitions for these terms.
Free (in terms of Purchase Price)
There is a lot (and by that I mean A LOT) of free software. Utilities, full-featured product suites, operating systems, database servers, development tools, the list goes on and on (and on and on and on and on...). Not all of these products are, however, open source. So while there are many (many, many) products that are freely available, you won't always be granted access the source code. In summary...
Not all free software is also open source software.
Open Source
This generally refers to software where in the source code (in part or whole) is exposed. There is a common misconception that all open source software is free. Granted, most open source software is, indeed, free. However, there are some for-cost systems whose source is available for a fee. This is not common but does occur on occasion.
Free (in terms of Total Cost of Ownership)
I think it's safe to guess that if you are reading this you know that "free software" is not free to obtain, implement, integrate, and maintain. The costs for each system (beyond the development/purchase cost) is called the Total Cost of Ownership. I won't spend a lot of time writing about this because it probably is well understand.
So that's it, just want to set the stage for my next blog entry. What are your thoughts on this?