I see a lot of people here misunderstood the article. It's not an attack on Gitlab in any way. Or taking the side for Github or Microsoft. It talks about busine

I see a lot of people here misunderstood the article. It's not an attack on Gitlab in any way. Or taking the side for Github or Microsoft. It talks about business decision, not ideological one. If anything, it's attack on French bureaucratic processes that make it hard for employees to ask for something to be purchased. Or it's a cultural thing, once you're employed you're a fixed cost and your hourly rate is not analyzed anymore in purchasing decisions. The results are the same. It's easier to spend 10 hours on a free thing than to get approved a purchase for something that costs one hour. Numbers are just an example, don't know how they hit this specific case. Therefore, when considering market for your software, it's not only about demand and usage, you have to take into account whether that demand comes from those who are willing to spend money. The fact that 50% of developers in France use Gitlab, doesn't mean much if they're not willing to pay. If above the average (compared to other countries) 50% of usage is specifically because of the free self-hosting option, it preselects those who will spend time instead of money. Anecdotally, sales of my software in France, or for that matter in Spain or Italy, are 10x smaller than sales in Netherlands, or Sweden, much smaller countries. maybe it's a language thing, as some countries are know for excellent levels of English, and some not? But since my software is for developers and IT people English shouldn't be a barrier for them, so I suspect cultural and bureaucratic reasons are the main culprit.