Yes my friends, you can charge for free software.

I was reading Slashdot today and on of the posts was “Making Money Using Open Source Software?” where GamblerZG asks how you can make money creating Free software.  Yes, it is possible.  Because the FOSS people use “free” differently than you or I do.

You see just because something is free, doesn’t mean it is Free.  This is a distinction that people in the open source world make by referring to things as “free (as in beer)” or “Free (as in speech)” (Yes, for some reason they always capitalize the “Free (as in speech)”.)  The difference is that something that is “free (as in beer)” is something that does not have cost.  You can download it for free, use it for free and never will a cent leave you. “Free (as in speech)” is an entirely different concept.  When they (again, they being that nebulous void that is the open source/free software movement) refer to “Free (as in speech)”, they are using Free as in Freedom.  They purport that having open source software gives you more freedoms than closed source. (They are probably right. (if you think about it (and you care))) 

Anyway, the thing is you can charge for “Free” software all you want.  You just have to give the source code out.  How long you will be able to is another story.

Sorry for the random tangent.  Just saw that post and figured I would chime in.  It won’t happen again.