best analogy to explain free software floss to non geeks

Posted by opensas on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by opensas
Published on 2010-05-25T04:13:04Z Indexed on 2010/05/25 4:21 UTC
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open-source

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advocacy

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floss

How do you explain free libre open source software to a computer illiterate guy?

Two well known analogies I've often heard are:

free software as a meal recipe, a set of instructions for you to inspect, learn, put into practice, and improve... versus a canned meal that you can only swallow without even knowing what you're eating...

and the other is comparing privative software to a car that you aren't allowed to open it's trunk to see inside in case anything goes wrong...

I'd like to know what other analogies you know that might help us explain free software to non geeks

saludos

sas

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