Why are software free?

[SigMan]

@Derleth

Anyway, an example of this is Microsoft opening up their implementations of C# and the .Net world in general, which is kind of an odd move because Microsoft once called Open Source “cancer”

Wasn’t that the same Bill who said, “We’ll never need more than 640K of memory?” :rolleyes:

[Derleth]

@SigMan

Wasn’t that the same Bill who said, “We’ll never need more than 640K of memory?” :rolleyes:

No, it was the guy who threw the chair: Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft is a member of the Linux Foundation now, contributing to Linux and is the top organization with the most Open Source contributors on GitHub as of late last year.

[Derleth]

More on the chair-throwing thing because you’re gonna ask anyway:

According to court documents, Ballmer flew off the handle in 2005 when Microsoft staffer Mark Lucovsky told him of his plans to move to Google. Lucovsky claims in a sworn statement that Ballmer also picked up a chair and threw it across the room in a fit of rage during the meeting.

During the chair-chucking, Ballmer was quoted as saying:

Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I’m going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google.

Eric Schmidt was CEO of Google at the time.

[TriPolar]

You often get what you pay for with free software. Sometimes you overpay too.

[DPRK]

Note that there is also nothing preventing someone from selling free-software products for cash money, or from including Linux with your IBM Hardware Management Console or HD media streamer. Free use includes commercial or government use, which is why big companies feel free to pour resources into it.

[Voyager]

@TriPolar

You often get what you pay for with free software. Sometimes you overpay too.

Yup. Linux is way buggier than Windows.