Frontends for Windows

[Ingo Klöcker]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Sunday 18 November 2001 14:50, Silviu Cojocaru wrote:
> Sunday, November 18, 2001 at 3:46:26 PM ,
> Florian Weimer wrote the following
> on the "Frontends for Windows" thread:
>
> FW> It's not Free Software.
>
> It is true that you don't get the source code for free but you
> get the binaries for free and you can do pretty much what you
> want with it, except leasing, renting or selling it, which after
> all makes good sense.

Free != Gratis

How often has this to be repeated?

Free Software does not mean that the software has to be given away 
gratis (like free beer).

Free Software means (more or less) that anyone has the right to change 
the source code and to redistribute the altered software provided this 
person also publishs the altered source code.

Obviously a piece of software which's source code is closed can't be 
Free Software (as defined by the FSF).

Especially with such a security relevant software like a frontend to an 
encryption program it's not tolerable that the source code is closed. 
How can anyone check if this software isn't maybe a trojan horse which 
collects the users' passphrases if the source code isn't published? And 
even if the program isn't a trojan horse there might be a bug which 
makes the usage of this program unsecure.

As the author doesn't seem to sell his software I really don't know why 
he doesn't publish the source code.

Regards,
Ingo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE799CDGnR+RTDgudgRAs/CAKCSjwXx6TZkC6MfI68qvm6JyqpRrwCgl7Ap
IgRTE892zm4YmIidKl7C6xQ=
=YUh6
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----