Re: [Trisquel-users] Stallman on the Linux Action Show

[alonivtsan]

t3g, unlike some people here I actually agree with some of your points. I saw  
a few of Stallman's lectures and thought they were very good, but I never  
quite understood how one was supposed to earn a living developing free  
software.

Selling support is an option, but many companies don't want a support  
contract and would prefer to simply use the product without support (see e.g.  
CentOS). Most people also don't donate money to software they use, so earning  
a living by relying on donations is risky.

GNU/Linux could make money if an OEM pre-installs a distribution and pays the  
devlopers of the software money. Unfortunately, none of the OEMs have  
committed to GNU/Linux and GNU/Linux deserves at least part of the blame with  
the mess the desktop environments are in at the moment. One of the companies  
developing a GNU/Linux distro could become an OEM and build their own  
computers, but that requires a huge investment which might not pay off.