Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on Linux
The big thing I see missing from all this analysis is the home vs. work distinction.  You have people saying &quot;Linux users choose FLOSS because of philosophy, and proprietary software goes against this&quot;, you have users saying &quot;I&#x27;d have tried it if it were FLOSS and I could just download it and try it&quot;, etc., but the problem is: this is a product for working with an Exchange server.  How many individual users have a need for this?<p>This is a product for businesses.  The dynamics are different: businesses can easily be convinced to pay for software, since they do so already.  If it solves a business need, this is an easy sell.<p>The way to make money with Linux software has <i>always</i> been to focus on the business market, because you&#x27;re just not going to get any significant number of home Linux users or enthusiasts to pay for your software.  And then, ignore the home&#x2F;enthusiast users.  No, I wouldn&#x27;t pay for an email client either, but I don&#x27;t need to connect to a Microsoft Exchange server at home.  If my workplace were trying to switch to Linux, however, I&#x27;d readily recommend such a product to management.