water cooler :: Phrases and sayings....
newOldUser: Personally I don't think "free beer" is a very clear way of explaining it. "Free as in no charge" is much easier to understand, particularly since the term "free beer" is typically used only when someone is trying to get the attention of college students.
As I see it, it's much easier to understand it as cbagger01 explained it...
closed-source freeware = free of charge
open-source = free to share and modify
original here.