this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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paying for free software (lemmy.ml)
submitted 7 months ago by GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)

How often does one pay for free/libre software?

Companies signing up for RHEL subscriptions pay for free software (they technically also do when signing up for Oracle Linux and the other RHEL copycats but those usually don't contribute upstrem).

For regular consumers, the same is true when buying a Steam Deck.

I bought Krita on the Windows Store to get seamless updates and also fund the project after I asked for an improved text utility and the reply was "Have you donated?".

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Signing up to RHEL is paying for support. True but missing the mark.

I saw this post as "avoid adware. Donate to freeware/FOSS."

There's plenty of people who donate to free apps. VLC comes to mind.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Signing up to RHEL is paying for support. True but missing the mark.

I don't think it's missing the mark because one big reason to sign with Red Hat is that in many cases RH is the actual developer, not just some technician who does the install.

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Yep. Funds directly go to RHEL staff and project dev

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Uhhh they are the developers of the distro (so the packaging mechanism and the build infrastructure which builds and installs packages.) But the kernel and the cli tools / libraries and the applications are not written by them.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Bro, look up what Red Hat develops before making such a comment. All that development is only funded because RHEL costs money.

[–] CryptoKitten@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They are paying for support, not the software itself. A long time ago you could go to the store and buy a box containing the CDs for Mandrake Linux as an example just like you can do with windows right now. You were not paying for the software itself but for the media and the box. Even when you pay for a binary on windows, you pay for the service of them compiling it and making it available to you, not the software itself since it is free/libre.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

You were not paying for the software itself but for the media and the box. Even when you pay for a binary on windows, you pay for the service of them compiling it and making it available to you, not the software itself since it is free/libre.

So nobody is ever paying for free software by your ridiculous definition.