Why Making Money from Free Software Matters

Free software began as a political movement: its central aim was – and remains – the propagation of freedom. Later, it became a development methodology too, largely at the hands of Linus, whose geographical isolation in Finland forced him to develop ways of using the Internet to coordinate a new kind of massive, but decentralised, global collaboration. Later still, free software also became a way of making serious money – something that Stallman has repeatedly said he is quite happy with, contrary to much FUD claiming otherwise.

Few would deny the importance of the first two aspects of free software – as an ideology and as a methodology – but the future impact of its business model is probably under-appreciated. And yet in its own way, that aspect is just as revolutionary as the other two.

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