The marginal cost of copying software is zero, so it seems venal (to me) to charge people for making copies of that software. Writing new software takes effort

The marginal cost of copying software is zero, so it seems venal (to me) to charge people for making copies of that software. Writing new software takes effort, and maintaining existing software takes effort, so it seems perfectly natural to charge people for that. (RMS himself charges people for writing and maintaining software, "Free" as in liberty not free beer, eh?) - - - - To me the whole point of software, of transistors!, is to change the nature of our economics to a post-drudgery post-scarcity world. "Let the robots do the work and we'll take their pay." Giving away software should be seen as a way to accelerate that process (e.g. Bucky Fuller's "Design Science Revolution".) In that light, "Open" source (as contrasted with "Free" GPL'd source) is pointless because it omits the crucial aspect of not hoarding software improvements. In other words, Open Source gives away the cornucopia to people that don't share. We have seen technological progress result in skyrocketing wealth yet most of it is captured and sequestered and we go on in relative poverty squandering our precious moments of life in pointless jobs. Don't make software development into another pointless thankless job. Use computers and software to remake civilization into a nicer, more fun place to be.