this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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Richard Stallman was the first developer to get paid for selling Free Software (the emacs editor) and in the original, first idea it was always intended that Free Software may and even should cost something. It was not intended as anti-capitalism software. It's free as in freedom, not as in free beer.
The idea that it is bad or not ethical for somebody working on Free Software to get paid is absurd.
There may be different names for the same thing, like Free Software, Open Source, Libre Software, and therefore acronyms like FLOSS, however, something called Communist Software, Anti-Capitalism Software, Money-is-Bad Software or similar would be a different thing and must not be confused with the former one.
I'm not saying that nobody should impose the restriction that people working on software are not allowed to take money for it. I'm saying that software with this restriction would be something different (and does not exist afaik) and as far as I am concerned I don't care about that kind of software or philosophy behind it. Just leave the devs that manage to get paid for working on FLOSS alone and do your own thing.
But you can't have one without the other. Putting a cost on software is adding a restriction, thus making it less free (as in freedom).
Free software should be available to everyone, even to people who don't have money to pay for it (poor third world countries, students, kids).
I personally believe, that you should pay for software that helps you earn money. For everything else - it's everyone's own decision to donate or not, based on a financial situation, beliefs, political position and what not.