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<blockquote data-quote="Raiden" data-source="post: 873196" data-attributes="member: 72227">You highlight a very important aspect of &quot;free software&quot; and it's one that is often forgotten/ignored. Free software is great, don't get me wrong, I mean you can't argue with free. The problem is that it's not always sustainable. Unless they are getting money through ad's, another full time job, sponsors, donations, etc...developers need to make money. I'm not talking about being extremely rich type of money, they just need money to live like everyone else.A lot of free software starts out for the fun of it. Over time either the developer(s) slow down with updating the software, or they just stop completely. Hence why there are many forks with open source software, it's&nbsp; mostly because the developer stopped developing it, so someone picks it up and continues on, until the cycle continues. While I agree that free software CAN be done, it doesn't mean that a developer cannot charge for it, especially if they want to make it their full time job. Linux is a great example, many major distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, PopOS, etc...) are largely funded by other companies, or sponsors. Fedora is paid for by Red Hat which makes money in the enterprise, Ubuntu is paid for by Canonical, and PopOS is paid for by System 76 which builds and sells Linux computers. So while free, they have income coming in that allows it to be free.Another great example is No Virus Thanks. He makes a ton and I mean a ton of great free software. Its clear he makes money through projects he works on for businesses and enterprises, so obviously a lot of his time will be spent there. While his free offerings are great, when was the last time we seen any updates to them?? Nothing against him whats so ever, I know he will return and develop them again, but it just goes to show that free isn't always great. Eventually things will either slow down, or stop entirely.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raiden, post: 873196, member: 72227"] You highlight a very important aspect of "free software" and it's one that is often forgotten/ignored. Free software is great, don't get me wrong, I mean you can't argue with free. The problem is that it's not always sustainable. Unless they are getting money through ad's, another full time job, sponsors, donations, etc...developers need to make money. I'm not talking about being extremely rich type of money, they just need money to live like everyone else. A lot of free software starts out for the fun of it. Over time either the developer(s) slow down with updating the software, or they just stop completely. Hence why there are many forks with open source software, it's mostly because the developer stopped developing it, so someone picks it up and continues on, until the cycle continues. While I agree that free software CAN be done, it doesn't mean that a developer cannot charge for it, especially if they want to make it their full time job. Linux is a great example, many major distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, PopOS, etc...) are largely funded by other companies, or sponsors. Fedora is paid for by Red Hat which makes money in the enterprise, Ubuntu is paid for by Canonical, and PopOS is paid for by System 76 which builds and sells Linux computers. So while free, they have income coming in that allows it to be free. Another great example is No Virus Thanks. He makes a ton and I mean a ton of great free software. Its clear he makes money through projects he works on for businesses and enterprises, so obviously a lot of his time will be spent there. While his free offerings are great, when was the last time we seen any updates to them?? Nothing against him whats so ever, I know he will return and develop them again, but it just goes to show that free isn't always great. Eventually things will either slow down, or stop entirely. [/QUOTE]

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