Libre knowledge

Libre is a loan word in English borrowed from various Romance languages, including Spanish and French. As in these languages, "libre" in English denotes "the state of being free", as in "having freedom" or "liberty".

During the mid to late 1990s, and moreso during the first decades of this century, the word libre acquired a very specific meaning within certain free/libre and open source software communities : free as in freedom (gratis) - distinct from the other meaning of free, free of charge (gratis).

Software is a form of knowledge, culture is an expression of our collective knowledge. Although this collection of pages concern libre knowledge, the principles also apply to libre culture and other libre initiatives inspired by the free software movement.

When searching the web for information on libre software, libre knowledge, and libre culture, etc., also try the adjectives "open" and "free", though some of the links returned might be less about the essence of the libre movement (freedom) and more about practicalities (e.g. price and the open source development model).