On Thu, 12 Dec 2002, Dorian Meid wrote:
Pat Eyler schrieb:
Hi Ambrose,
I discovered that there is de.koha.org. It has "free" translated as "kostenlos", but fr.koha.org has "libre". Which is closer to the intended meaning of "free" as used in www.koha.org? (I suppose the French?)
On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, Rachel Hamilton-Williams wrote: libre is a much better term ... the German probably ought to be 'freie' instead. Koha may be 'kostenlos'/'gratis', but the more important aspect is the freedom which it carries. When i made this translation i thought of that. But in germany with 'frei' you associate mostly freedom of individuals or living at your own will. You don't associate free of charge. At least nobody will understand why a library software should have freedom and why this is an advantage.
This is interesting, and ties into another conversation I've been involved in lately ... Many people are looking at Koha because it is free (gratis), and not because it's free (libre). While I hope that the latter becomes more important as time goes along, playing to the crowd is certainly a better way of drawing eyeballs. Perhaps using Kostenlos but maintaining some information about the importance of the software being frei as well. thanks, -pate
Dorian