The Modernization of Emacs: terminology buffer and keybinding

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:40:55 -0000, Twisted <twisted0n3 at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Jun 25, 2:32 pm, Giorgos Keramidas <keram... at ceid.upatras.gr>
>wrote:
>>> So much for the "free" in "free software". If you can't actually use
>>> it without paying money, whether for the software or for some book,
>>> it isn't really free, is it?
>>
>> Please do not confuse the term 'free' in 'free software' with 'gratis'.
>>
>> 'Gratis', i.e. 'lacking a monetary price tag' is something *very*
>> different from the meaning of 'free' in 'free software'.
>
> Having to pay for the documentation, presumably because it's
> copyrighted, doesn't strike me as much more "free as in speech" than
> it is "free as in beer".

You don't have to "pay for the documentation because it is copyrighted".
You can _download_ the Emacs manual in any format you are more
comfortable with.

See for example:

  http://www.gnu.org/manual/manual.html

This page lists downloadable documentation in nicely formatted HTML or
PDF formats, which is available without any sort of monetary charge.

> Also being dependent on a particular publisher for access to required
> documentation violates "free as in no vendor lock-in", to boot. So
> anyone saying some "free" software is unusable without such-and-such
> an O'Reilly book can go peddle the software and the book somewhere
> where spammers are welcome. Being locked in to O'Reilly being just as
> bad as being locked in to Microsoft or Adobe.

Since you are not obliged to _pay_ for the O'Reilly version, this entire
paragraph is both meaningless and moot.  Feel free to grab an online
copy of the manual, or install the documentation of Emacs using your
favorite distribution's packaging tools.  There is absolutely no
"lock-in" anywhere near Emacs.

- Giorgos