Thread

Nobody pays for FOSS, we can force them to

196 points · 209 comments · Muhammad523

rootedbox · 1789940837 · focus · HN ↗
You seem to be forgetting the most important word in FOSS..
1. amelius · 1789941561 · focus · HN ↗
  For them it is not the most important word, apparently.
  1. aaasssdddgirl · 1789943604 · focus · HN ↗
    But it is one of the words.
    amelius · 1789943750 · focus · HN ↗
    It can still be free for most people but paid for companies who make >$5M revenue.
    Conditionally free is also free.
2. mixologic · 1789944633 · focus · HN ↗
  The Free in Foss is not "Free as in beer".
  1. bigstrat2003 · 1789948112 · focus · HN ↗
    No, but "free as in speech" effectively precludes making money from sales of the software. As soon as you sell it to one person, that person can give it to others for less than he paid you (all the way down to free), so nobody has a reason to pay you any more. There's a reason FOSS survives on donations or service, rather than selling copies of the software.
3. illright · 1789951032 · focus · HN ↗
  The software still remains free, it's the registry that would become a paid service under such a model, that's what was proposed in the article. And even then, the registry would remain free for individuals, so it would merely be a price of convenience

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