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Non-commercial clauses violate Freedom 0, the freedom to run software for any purpose. It’s the single most foundational freedom. A non-commercial clause basically guarantees that a piece of software will not be used.

For that matter, why should e.g. Warren Buffet personally get to use non-commercial software personally for free, while the bakery down the street must pay for it? That doesn’t seem desirable.

I think the biggest issue is that the companies charging for open source are not turning around and funding everyone the rely on, just a few key projects. If they tried to distribute a little bit to everyone, I think that would go a long way.




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