Re: Thanks, and a Brief Survey

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    Anyway - as I say, for me they're essentially synonyms. For others,
    including RMS, they're not.

See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
for an explanation of the difference in philosophy between free
software and open source.

GNOME is a GNU package, and was founded specifically to fight for
users' freedom.  It is on the free software side.  However, people are
welcome to contribute to GNOME regardless of their views on this or
any subject.