Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[Jean-Marc Bourguet <jm@bourguet.org>]

Adrian Knoth <adi@drcomp.erfurt.thur.de> writes:

> Pascal Obry <p.obry@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> 
> >> "Bogue" is an interesting word -- what does it really mean? Is it
> > I'm not sure it is so interesting. In France we like French word :), 
> 
> So much that you don't call it byte, but octet :)

Well octet is restricted to 8 bits, byte is not.

> > The last one is certainly the most stupid in my view 
> 
> We here in Germany do it quite the other way round. We directly use
> the English term. That's why a special computer (sorry, l'ordinateur :)
> slang appeared and non-technical people were no longer able to follow.
> But that doesn't really matter, because not understanding the terms
> also means not to understand the plot. :)))
> 
> I could get amused about these differences. The cellphone, the mobile
> and wireless phone, is strange, too. In English it is cellphone,
> the Germans call it "Handy" (pronounced English, means "to hold it
> in the hand") and for the Frenchs it is nomade, which would (for us)
> mean "not to settle down" - "moving around, itinerant".

Portable, Mobile, GSM.  I've also seen "G" but that's probably more a
Belgian usage than a french one.  "Nomad" (without e) is one of the
offers of a provider, that perhaps explain your confusion.

-- 
Jean-Marc