Zed Shaw: Why I (A/L)GPL

Re:Zed Shaw: Why I (A/L)GPL by omouse on Tuesday July 14, 2009 @01:45AM (#703180)

The only problem I have with this article is that Zed assumes that the software is given away for free. You can charge whatever amount you like for GPL software, it's just that a lot of developers feel bad about asking for $$ like that.

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Re:Zed Shaw: Why I (A/L)GPL by boucher on Tuesday July 14, 2009 @02:40AM (#703225)

It's true that you can charge for GPL software. It's just not a particularly good strategy. Because invariably, that software will wind up easily accessible on the Internet for free, maybe even with a higher page rank than your own page.

That's why companies typically dual license or charge for support with GPL software.

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Re:Zed Shaw: Why I (A/L)GPL by blasdel on Tuesday July 14, 2009 @02:57AM (#703239)

For an example, see the hilarity of when Sveasoft tried to sell subscription access to GPL linux router firmwares -- it actually worked for a little while when they were the only game in town, but quickly disintegrated. Eventually they just started ripping off OpenWRT and died.

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