
Ask HN: Do you want open source or free software? - ggurgone
I wonder how many would pay for open source software.<p>Are there examples of successful open source software that is not free?
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stewbrew
You're probably asking the wrong question. When you oppose "open source" to
"free", the term "free" is usually not used in the sense of "free beer" but in
the sense of the free software movement, since open source software isn't
necessarily "free".

When it comes to monetization, you might want to ask, what exactly people are
willing to pay for -- the right to install % use the software, to modify the
software, to get support etc. -- for what type of software.

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ggurgone
Exactly I think most of the times people want free software, as you said the
open aspect is for the ones who want transparency, do security audits, modify
etc.

I wonder though if open but not free (can contribute but not fork) is
sustainable or even doable. Is there a standard license type for this kind of
software?

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stewbrew
Open but not free is what Microsoft and others do/did in some projects. That's
one of the reasons why Stallman is so eager to draw the line between open and
free software.

Example: Java's stdlib source code is open for you to read it but you're not
free to modify it and redistribute it according to your likings.

(A few) People pay developers of free software to get support (e.g. some
libs), for professional editions (e.g. some IDEs), or to support further
development (e.g. some Android apps).

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jrepinc
I want open source and Free (as in freedom) software. And I value privacy,
freedom and democracy so much it is not a problem to pay good money for such
software. Luckily privacy, freedom and democracy respecting software is almost
always also free as in beer, so I don't need to pay for it if I can't. But
this doesn't stop me from donating to projects creating such software. In fact
I have invested a lot more money in such free as in beer and freedom software
than I have wasted on closed-source/proprietary/totalitarian.

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inp
I think to RedHat, the Linux distribution. With the not-free version, the user
can have a support from the RedHat team.

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ggurgone
Yeah, unfortunately I don't particularly fancy this business model. Support
and consulting can't be automate.

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tobylane
You're looking for something automatable that will generate you money while
being based on a third party's open source code?

