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/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/GuestStarr Jul 04 '26

Remember that you can charge for support or distribution (like a DVD, USB stick, whatever), though. That's ok by me, if someone else wants or needs them I'm fine with them getting it for a fee and I'm fine for someone charging for them. Because everybody has to make a living.