Re: Leaving Freenode behind

[Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>]

* Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> [2021-06-22 09:40]:
> It is unfortunate to think that the moment one markets something,
> then it is corrupt.  There is nothing wrong with a business or an
> industry.  Business means that something that someone needs, someone
> decides to provide.  As long as it is a legitimate business and people
> are paying their taxes.  Of course for a cost, because if it needs to be
> sustained, there has to be a cost.  
> 
> Till people give up this attitude, free software will not spread
> across.  Free software must go to every village if the urban people
> pay for it.  That is my mission and I will take it there.

What you don't see is that free software WAS always one or the other
business. There is nothing wrong and was never wrong in selling free
software. That is how I found it, I have paid 90 Deutschmarks in
Buchhandlung under Bahnhof in Stuttgart for the "Red Hat Linux" book
with the CDs attached. That was in 1999. All my contacts at the time
were with the companies selling free software on CDs. It was never in
my mind a question that such would be "free". What was good with it is
that license was permissive and I could buy one time and use it many
times. 

So many times I have purchased Free GNU/Linux variations of OS-es in
magazines or with books. In fact I used Internet so little, it took me
few years to figure out that I could just download software. Until
then I have been installing it from paid CDs.

Many companies are profiting on free software. It was since the
inception of GNU with kernel Linux that it was sold and sold over and
over again.

How do you mean: free software will not spread? It runs now the
majority of Internet, people pay for VPS-es, it is just everywhere,
well spread.

-- 
Jean

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