Smoking Linux, one of the top Linux blogs on the internet came out with a post earlier today about the paradox of selling free software:
“Selling” and “Free” are two words that may create some confusion when used together. How on earth can something be free when it is being sold? Selling a copy of a free program is legitimate in every aspect. The distinction is drawn when software developers do it in a way similar to that being done with proprietary software.
Open source and free software are terms associated with Linux. Open source is often taken to be more or less in the same category as free software. In truth, they are not exactly the same class of software since open source can accept licenses that may be considered too restrictive by free software while there are also free software licenses that are not acceptable to open source.
The distinction can be very hard to see since nearly all free software is open source and vice versa. However, the term “free software” also refers to freedom in use which “open source” cannot claim to offer.