Re:Who does that server really serve? (2010)
by MaxBarraclough on Friday January 29, 2021 @06:31PM
(#25964259)
This is a misconception of what Free Software means.
I don't have a source to hand, but if I recall correctly, Stallman used to sell discs containing only Free Software, and made a profit doing so. That's in keeping with Free Software principles, although the Internet has mostly put an end to the practice (with exceptions like Red Hat). Stallman was also paid good money to implement enhancements to the GCC compiler suite.
It's also possible to accept donations for a Free Software project, or to offer to host the software as a paid service, or to charge for support (quite common in the GNU/Linux world, also with LibreOffice). Lastly, you can find a salaried job writing Free Software, such as Linux kernel development.
As someone already pointed out (unfortunately from a throwaway account), Free Software isn't against profit. They're pretty upfront about this. It's true that it can be very challenging to monetize Free Software, but that's an unfortunate harsh reality, not a tenet of the philosophy.
I don't have a source to hand, but if I recall correctly, Stallman used to sell discs containing only Free Software, and made a profit doing so. That's in keeping with Free Software principles, although the Internet has mostly put an end to the practice (with exceptions like Red Hat). Stallman was also paid good money to implement enhancements to the GCC compiler suite.
It's also possible to accept donations for a Free Software project, or to offer to host the software as a paid service, or to charge for support (quite common in the GNU/Linux world, also with LibreOffice). Lastly, you can find a salaried job writing Free Software, such as Linux kernel development.
As someone already pointed out (unfortunately from a throwaway account), Free Software isn't against profit. They're pretty upfront about this. It's true that it can be very challenging to monetize Free Software, but that's an unfortunate harsh reality, not a tenet of the philosophy.
Incidentally this topic turned up yesterday over at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25946073