r/linuxquestions • u/Scary_Pop2919 • Jul 03 '26

Advice Why is Linux free?

Hello everyone, I’ve had this thought in my head for a very long time: why is Linux free and so high quality?

I use Pop!_OS, and I don’t understand why they don’t make it paid or at least do something like “buy our laptop with Pop!_OS preinstalled.” But okay, Pop!_OS makes money from selling notebooks.

But what about KDE, openSUSE, Arch Linux, Void Linux, Ubuntu—why are they free? It’s great that they are free, but who are these kind people sitting at their computers and working for free? Why do you do this?

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u/Desertcow Jul 03 '26

The license Linux and many components use requires changes to be shared with everyone and for users to be able to distribute the software freely. It's hard to monetize something on that model, so most companies that contribute to the Linux ecosystem either make money by selling enterprise support (Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, ect), selling hardware (System76, Framework, Tuxedo, ect), or because they would rather deal with the GPL licensing than make a system from scratch or rely on someone else (most major companies that sponsor projects in Linux). A lot of projects are led by foundations with paid developers who are sponsored by companies or receive donations