I thought this was Free software

#1

I was reading the ardour web page and in the download Issues page I can read:

‘’‘Some people like to explain this with the phrase “Ardour is free as in free speech, not free as in free beer”. Others like to point out that English doesn’t have two different words like some other languages do, to differentiate between “free as in speech” (e.g. “libre” in French) and “free as in beer” (e.g. “gratis” in French). Ardour is “libre” software, with a bit of the “gratis” thrown in.’‘’

Ok, Gratis & libre are spanish words, not french words, jejejejeje. In French the translation for Free is “Gratuit” :slight_smile:

#2

But it is free software? You can download the source code without having to pay anything.

#3

In Quebec, they use gratis and gratuit interchangeably. In fact, I recall a radio commercial where they had two people arguing with each other: “C’est gratis!” “C’est gratuit!” back and forth… Or maybe it should be << C’est gratis! >> :slight_smile:

#4

“Gratuit” and “gratis” are most accurately translated into English as “without cost” or “free of charge”. The source code to Ardour is and always will be available without cost and free of charge. Both words exist in French. As far as I know, Spanish does not use “gratuit” but does use “gratuito”.

“Libre” is word in several Romantic languages, including French and Spanish, and means the same in all them.

#5

U are in true.

Libre and Gratis exists in French too… I was in mistake then :smiley:

#6

I do not know if this was just a thread to discuss french and spanish, but I would like to point out that Ardour is offered as a built package in most Linux distros, so there are many edges to the “free as in free beer” part (In the case that such thing is what you are needing).
Your typed laughter seems to be in spanish. If you are from a third world spanish speaking country like myself and want some advice with the software I can gladly help you out :slight_smile:

#7

That is true with a lot of caveats…

  • On most Stable/LTS Distros it will be several versions old
  • It will not be supported by the Ardour developers
  • It will not be built with the handpicked/patched support libraries that the official builds are…

Will it still work? Most likely… but you’re not getting the ‘real thing’

1 Like
#8

I knew about the first 2 points, but I was not aware of this. Would you care to explain? (Or maybe link an explanation on the subject?)
Thanks.

`

#9

I can’t explain in detail and I don’t know exactly to what degree this currently happens, I only know that it has happened in the past specifically with GTK2 (but also others) and now they maintain their own modified GTK2 fork. In general when they build these bundles they are picking versions of the support libs that will work on a variety of Distributions and will even work on ‘oldstable’ Distros so any number of these will most likely differ from what cutting edge or Rolling release Distros use. The difference could be be significant or subtle I’m sure and may affect one workflow and not another so my point isn’t really that Distro Packages are sure to be problematic but they will definitely differ from the official builds for what that may be worth. For me since Ardour is an incredibly complex piece of software I want to eliminate as many variables as possible…

1 Like
#10

Got it. Thank you very much, Glen.

#11

Although I might be willing to point out how often it seems that Ubuntu manages to break things in their distribution version.

2 Likes
#13

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.