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I don't like that Valve says that SteamOS is "freely licensable". They must know by now that the word "free" often means "libre" in the GNU/Linux community, but they've made no indication of what the license terms will actually be.


Presumably the GNU/Linux core is libre and Steam is freeware. Why would it be anything else?


The point is that Valve is using confusing language to claim that they are "open", instead of saying what they are really doing: writing proprietary software that sits on top of a free software operating system.


The word "open" (well, the derivative "openness") is only used once on the page, and the context is clear: It's not locked to any hardware (like Windows) but is freeware (like Android).


Free as in beer; not speech.




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