Alternatives to the term "Free Software"

• Bad: Easy to confuse with free-of-cost
• Bad: Describes the effect on the software, not on the user

"Open source" is well understood…or is it? Even before "open source", "open" had loads of meanings already, which now allows people to name their projects "open" even if they aren't "open source" at all.

• Bad: Draws attention away from the freedoms; gives the impression that it's just about the availability of the source
• Bad: Has basically come to mean "free of cost" for most tech juniors, which is pretty ironic considering it was (I imagine) a reaction to the ambiguity of "free software".

Where's the antonym?

• Bad: Still built on "free", thus still ambiguous
• Bad: By putting both "free" and "open source" together, it potentially tilts the interpretation of "free" even further towards "free of cost".

Where's the antonym, William?

• Good: Cannot be confused with free-of-cost
• Bad: Unfamiliar word for many people, likely to be ignored
• Bad: Doesn't quite roll off the tongue as easily
• Bad: Describes the effect on the software, not on the user

(may be capitalized to avoid confusion in some contexts)

• Good: Cannot be confused with free-of-cost
• Bad: Describes the effect on the software, not on the user

• Good: Cannot be confused with free-of-cost
• Good: Describes the effect on the user
• Bad: Lengthy
• Bad: The initialism for both would be the same, i.e. "FR software".
  • We can try something like "FRp" and "FRt" as ancronyms
• Bad: The focus on "freedom" and "liberty" makes it sound very American - other countries may not relate with it as much. In recent years, "freedom" has also been poisoned by capitalist right-wingers (a.k.a. laissez faire/right-wing libertarians), who demand "freedom" from regulations. As such, a person demanding freedom is (rightly) treated with suspicion at first glance.

alternative terms - "freeing software", "software that liberates"

alternative antonyms - "enslaving software", "software that enslaves"

• Good: Cannot be confused with free-of-cost
• Good: Describes the effect on the user

• Bad: Potentially confusing when spoken.

  For example, in "CoMaps is Liberating Software," or "Google Maps is Restricting Software," you can't tell if the speaker is using "liberating" as an adjective or as a verb.

  You can use capitalization to avoid confusion in writing, but that doesn't help in spoken language.

alternative terms - "freedom software", "liberty software"

alternative antonyms - "enslavement software"

• Good: Cannot be confused with free-of-cost
• Good: Describes the effect on the user
• Good: Unique initialisms ("LS" and "RS")
  • I also like "LiberationSoft""RestrictionSoft" and "LiberationWare""RestrictionWare" as abbreviations. Just don't try to abbreviate "Liberation", because the outcome usually tends to be awkward to pronounce.

• Good: Cannot be confused with free-of-cost
• Good: Describes the effect on the user
• Good: Everyone immediately understands that monopolies are bad. Even laissez-faire capitalists purport to being against monopolies.
• Good: While the exact definition of "anti-monopolist software" can remain rooted in the four freedoms, the term "anti-monopolist" is informally also a good fit for related issues of SaaSS/centralized vs decentralized platforms, patents, DRM, LLMs, et al.
  • centralized software is monopolistic too, with decentralized and federated software being anti-monopolistic.
  • LLMs are monopolistic, if their weights aren't free (similarly for all libre software)

I've been trying to explain the benefits of free software to end users for a while now. Here's how the process typically goes -

1. You explain that "free software" gives them the four freedoms.
2. What four freedoms? The freedom to use, share, study, and modify.
3. What good do those freedoms do to an end user? You now explain why each one is important to end users.

And what it always boils down to, at that point, is that nobody can have a monopoly on the software. That's really it.

So, for the end user, it's really about the anti-monopolism. That's why I like this term so much.

I'm surprised I never thought of these before.

• Good: Cannot be confused with free-of-cost
• Good: Impact of both is well-understood
• Good: No verb-or-adjective confusion
• Bad: "Public" can potentially be confused with "State-owned". ("Collective" does not have this problem.)

• Good: Makes a witty "mukt, not muft" slogan
• Bad: "mukt" has spiritual connotations
• Bad: Describes the effect on the software, not on the user

For variants which describe the effect on the users, consider "मुक्तिवाहक (muktivāhak) software" or "मुक्तिदायक (muktidāyak) software".

Because of the spiritual connotation, I don't think this one is a good candidate. I only mention it for completeness, and because some others did.

• Good: Associated with the Indian independence movement and revolution
• Good: Provokes curiosity, because who has heard of "āzād" being used to describe software?
• Bad: Describes the effect on the software, not on the user

This was my first choice for an Indian term, but is now the runner-up.

To describe the effect on the users instead, consider -

"आज़ादीवाहक software"

āzādivāhak software, lit. "software that brings freedom"; shortest, almost self-explanatory, probably the best option

• "आज़ादीदायक" could be an option, but the two successive "द" sounds would be a bit awkward to pronounce.

"आज़ादी देने वाली software"

"āzādi déné wālī software", lit. "software that gives freedom/"; longer, but using street language

"आज़ादी लाने वाली software"

"āzādi lāné wālī software", lit. "software that brings freedom"; longer, but using street language

What about the antonym?

The opposite of "आज़ादी" (āzādī, freedom, especially in the context of the Freedom Struggle) is, of course, "ग़ुलामी" (gulāmī).

So "ग़ुलामी software" ("gulāmī software", lit. "enslavement software") is what comes to mind first, and is probably the best.

"बन्धी software" ("bandhī software", lit. "prisoner software") sounds good too.

Another fun option is "कब्ज़ा" (kabzā, "capture"), as in

• "कब्ज़ा करने वाली software" (kabzā karané wālī software) or
• "कब्ज़ा जमाने वाली software" (kabzā jamāné wālī software)

…both of which mean "software that captures/takes control".

And if we want to describe the effect on users -

"ग़ुलाम बनाने वाली software"

"gulām banāné wālī software", lit. "software that enslaves"

"ग़ुलामी लाने वाली software"

"gulāmi lāné wālī software", lit. "software that brings enslavement"

"बन्धी बनाने वाली software"

"bandhī banāné wālī software", lit. "software that takes [you] prisoner"

स्व - self, own; तंत्र - rule, system

Interesting (albeit uncommonly-used) antonym - परितंत्र (paritantra; rule by someone else, somebody else's system)

• Good: Has cognates in most Indian languages
• Bad: Connotation of "independent"
• Bad: Describes the effect on the software, not on the user

This used to be my runner-up for an Indian term, but now that I know about the संधिविच्छेद (the composition or division) of swatantra, and the antonym paritantra…I really like it best!

To describe the effect on the users instead, consider -

"स्वतांत्रिक" (swatāntrik) vs "परितांत्रिक" (paritāntrik) software

shortest, almost self-explanatory, probably the best option

"स्वतंत्रता देने वाली software"

"swatantratā déné wālī software", lit. "software that gives freedom/independence"; longer, but using street language

"स्वतंत्रता लाने वाली software"

"swatantratā lāné wālī software", lit. "software that brings freedom/independence"; longer, but using street language