↑Karl Fogel (2016). "Producing Open Source Software – How to Run a Successful Free Software Project". O'Reilly Media. เก็บจากแหล่งเดิมเมื่อ 22 June 2007. สืบค้นเมื่อ 2016-04-11. But the problem went deeper than that. The word "free" carried with it an inescapable moral connotation: if freedom was an end in itself, it didn't matter whether free software also happened to be better, or more profitable for certain businesses in certain circumstances. Those were merely pleasant side effects of a motive that was, at its root, neither technical nor mercantile, but moral. Furthermore, the "free as in freedom" position forced a glaring inconsistency on corporations who wanted to support particular free programs in one aspect of their business, but continue marketing proprietary software in others.
↑Eric S. Raymond. "Goodbye, "free software"; hello, "open source"". catb.org. เก็บจากแหล่งเดิมเมื่อ 2 January 2020. สืบค้นเมื่อ 27 August 2005. The problem with it is twofold. First, ... the term "free" is very ambiguous ... Second, the term makes a lot of corporate types nervous.
↑Kelty, Christpher M. (2008). "The Cultural Significance of free Software – Two Bits"(PDF). Duke University press – durham and london. p. 99. เก็บ(PDF)จากแหล่งเดิมเมื่อ 27 August 2008. สืบค้นเมื่อ 7 December 2017. Prior to 1998, Free Software referred either to the Free Software Foundation (and the watchful, micromanaging eye of Stallman) or to one of thousands of different commercial, avocational, or university-research projects, processes, licenses, and ideologies that had a variety of names: sourceware, freeware, shareware, open software, public domain software, and so on. The term Open Source, by contrast, sought to encompass them all in one movement.
↑Shea, Tom (1983-06-23). "Free software – Free software is a junkyard of software spare parts". InfoWorld. สืบค้นเมื่อ 2016-02-10. "In contrast to commercial software is a large and growing body of free software that exists in the public domain. Public-domain software is written by microcomputer hobbyists (also known as "hackers") many of whom are professional programmers in their work life. [...] Since everybody has access to source code, many routines have not only been used but dramatically improved by other programmers."
↑Raymond, Eric S. (1998-02-08). "Goodbye, "free software"; hello, "open source"". เก็บจากแหล่งเดิมเมื่อ 2 January 2020. สืบค้นเมื่อ 2008-08-13. After the Netscape announcement broke in January I did a lot of thinking about the next phase – the serious push to get "free software" accepted in the mainstream corporate world. And I realized we have a serious problem with "free software" itself. Specifically, we have a problem with the term "free software", itself, not the concept. I've become convinced that the term has to go.
↑Stallman, Richard (June 16, 2007). "Why "Open Source" misses the point of Free Software". Philosophy of the GNU Project. Free Software Foundation. เก็บจากแหล่งเดิมเมื่อ 4 August 2011. สืบค้นเมื่อ July 23, 2007. As the advocates of open source draw new users into our community, we free software activists have to work even more to bring the issue of freedom to those new users' attention. We have to say, 'It's free software and it gives you freedom!'—more and louder than ever. Every time you say 'free software' rather than 'open source,' you help our campaign.