alt Hacker NewsYes, it's a joke. The Free in Free Software is sold as being Free as in Freedom to devs by recruiters of the cause, however the bulk of actual consumers see Free Software as equivalent to Open Source and the defining characteristic for them is Free as in Gratis.
Honestly, that whole "free as in X" problem to me seems like an English only problem. As an ESL I perceive "free" to be the adjective to "freedom" by default and the other meaning to be a contraction of "free of charge".