i've just done some info crunching,trying to distil what i want to say with "free software" but without the problems of the term "free software" (having to explain you don't mean $$$) and the problem with "open-source" (having to explain it's also still Free) and all the related bad terms like: FOSS FLOSS etc and i have come up with a new and better term:

public software

update: i am not the first person to use this term :D