[HN Gopher] Free (open source) is good. Free (cost) is bad?
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       Free (open source) is good. Free (cost) is bad?
        
       Author : GuyNumberFive
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2021-09-17 17:09 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lunduke.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lunduke.substack.com)
        
       | randomhodler84 wrote:
       | Gratis is good. Libre is good. The "if you dont pay you are the
       | product" only makes sense for services with ongoing cost. I paid
       | nothing for my Arch Linux and add negligible load on update
       | servers which are mirrored by academic institutions worldwide.
       | You cannot argue that my machine or me is now productized for
       | Arch. Not everything needs a monetary price tag associated,
       | however I do agree that everything has a cost, in a abstract
       | economic sense.
        
       | frazbin wrote:
       | Beep beep! Obvious police here! All software has cost, in the
       | form of labor. Free software is different because it doesn't
       | associate a /price/ to that cost. Important distinction, because
       | they are totally different concepts that barely have the same
       | units.
       | 
       | Cost: the inputs of time/treasure to produce something
       | 
       | Price: the value sought for something on the market to compensate
       | its creator for its cost.
       | 
       | Anyway he's saying that free software should have a price, which
       | is tough because customary definitions of the 'something' being
       | priced/sold are inadequate.
       | 
       | 'things' we have tried to price when trying to offset the costs
       | of OSS:
       | 
       | 1. support
       | 
       | 2. good vibes from the developers
       | 
       | 3. CD-ROMs
       | 
       | 4. 'premium' features
       | 
       | 5. ??? (add yours)
        
         | hammyhavoc wrote:
         | A lot of free software has its origins in the author solving a
         | problem for themselves. The reward was the solution to their
         | problem.
         | 
         | Much of my contributions to open source, and what I've made
         | available in terms of projects, is quite literally just "this
         | functionality wasn't available", or "this was poor UX", and
         | offering my solution to whoever wants to incorporate it into
         | their stack, or into the main project.
        
           | horsawlarway wrote:
           | This exactly. I'm writing code because I have a problem to
           | solve, and I don't mind sharing the solution.
           | 
           | It's like sharing construction/tool tips while working in a
           | shop or maker space.
           | 
           | Does my time have cost? Sure, but I'm there because I enjoy
           | it. And the nifty thing about software is that it's basically
           | free to distribute.
           | 
           | I'll add - I don't provide any support or feedback for my
           | software at all to users. I don't find that fun - so I don't
           | do it.
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-17 23:02 UTC)