Re:The chemfp project: problems selling free software
by WJW on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @06:49AM
(#23905822)
> Open source software is free because the entire idea behind it is users don't get excluded. It's more about being accessible than not charging money.
The reason for the creator of the software to make it open source does not have to be the reason that the users decide to use it.
Even at work, I don't think a single person has ever had the source code of Redis, Postgres or even most of their NodeJS modules open on their machine. The reason they use it is because they can `apt/brew/npm install redis` and off they go. They wouldn't care at all if npm only installed binaries. Zero price enables this kind of easy distribution because every form of money transfer is more difficult (especially in corporate setting where you have to pay for it) than "not paying at all".
The reason for the creator of the software to make it open source does not have to be the reason that the users decide to use it.
Even at work, I don't think a single person has ever had the source code of Redis, Postgres or even most of their NodeJS modules open on their machine. The reason they use it is because they can `apt/brew/npm install redis` and off they go. They wouldn't care at all if npm only installed binaries. Zero price enables this kind of easy distribution because every form of money transfer is more difficult (especially in corporate setting where you have to pay for it) than "not paying at all".