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jaidedctrl wrote

Well, there are a few different business models that work for Free Software.

  1. Selling support (I.E., custom patches)
  2. Selling tech support
  3. Selling binaries (source-code gratis, binary $$)
  4. Selling some sort of hosting service
  5. Patreon

1, 2, and 4 might not work for every kind of program, but 3 can work for many, and 5 can work for any program with people who appreciate it.

3 is probably best done (for games) by offering on Steam, Desura, etc… Non-free platforms, yea, but that's where the market is-- at least for now.

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cal wrote (edited )

Remember, developers are sometimes unable to do what they wish with their own software, because it includes someone else's proprietary software.

idSoftware, although they are a proprietary software company, is famous for complaining about this in the 90s, and after struggling to release their own software under the GPL, they committed to writing their own stuff from scratch so they would no longer be encumbered by proprietary software licenses when writing and releasing their software.

Red Hat has had similar cases. They buy out a proprietary program to free it, only to find out that it includes proprietary software under a license with some other company. So they have to take a bit of time to rework the source code to not depend on that proprietary program, before they release it as free software.

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