[Discuss] Why use Linux?

[mark at buttery.org (Shirley Márquez Dúlcey)]

> The GPL has always denied some freedoms to developers, such as the
> right to exclusively make money from their work.

>Ahh, there in lies the lies that lairs lie about the GPL. The GPL does not
>deny any developer the right to make money from their work.

You missed the word "exclusively". The GPL indeed makes it impossible
to keep anybody else from making money by building on your software
and then selling support for it. They can also sell the software
itself, but since they have to make the source code available for free
it's impossible to force people to pay.

Even with completely proprietary software there are ways to make
money: you can sell books, offer classes, sell installation and
support services, etc. The selfish developer can't prevent others from
various ways of taking what he might consider a free ride. I wouldn't
consider any of those things a free ride; they are delivering
additional value and that is what you are being paid for.