Even code is not free. Any decent developer writing code does so with an opportunity cost. If those developers want to provide that software to others for free, that’s great. But it still costs their own time and skills that they could be monetizing. For many people it’s a hobby.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They could also be having a life or idk going to a movie. People that demand software cost $0 either never programmed anything more than a few hundred lines or are iq 2000 coding perfect fully complete applications in ten minutes using cat >

[–] MooseBoys@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the majority of people who demand software cost $0 are hobbyists who write code themselves, but it bothers them that not all developers share their passion. I’ve written a little code and some 3D models that I’ve released under Apache2 / CC-BY, but the vast majority of the code I’ve written in my life was done in exchange for a paycheck.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Probably true. I was a dev briefly and in a limited way. I do it as a hobby. Have a bunch of open source embedded stuff out there and a few other minor things. I don't mind because I did it for me and figured why not share.

Writing a complicated, fully polished, production ready app with a fancy UI is a massive pain for me. So much so that I have never made it that far. I would have to get paid plenty to go to that kind of trouble. Actually no. There's a reason I chose a different career lol.

I guess some people have a talent and passion to do big projects free of charge and open source. Cool for them but no shade to throw at devs that want much deserved compensation!