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Precisely, beer costs money so "free as in beer" means "free as in money" as opposed to "free as in freedom" that means "free as in ideology"

Gmail is free as in beer, but not free as in freedom, while RHEL is free as in freedom, but not free as in beer.

It's taken from "Free as in [Free] Beer vs Free as in [Free] Speech"

Gratis vs Libre - the former is zero cost (i.e., you're not paying for the free beer), the latter is some cost (i.e., there is a price for free speech - we need to defend the right, accept we won't like everything that is said, etc.)

It's a difference between the freedom to say "I want a beer" and a free beer given to you. That it means it's free in a monetary sense.

That is the nearest to an explanation in all the answers ie saying "Beer is NOT free' all the others still confuse me as I read its literally. and 'Free as in beer' makes no sense so the whole thing just does not compute.

I do understand what GPL does and the reasons for this just not this slogan.

"free beer" means something very different to "free speech". That's what the phrase refers to.

Yes, that should change to Free as in Air.