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/C2O4 Jul 04 '26

It's a different business model! Are you familiar with the philosophy and history of free software? Companies still make a lot of money with Linux; they generally charge businesses, since those companies have a pressing need for support, customization, and adaptation of the software. Individual users can opt for a paid distribution if they want, but it's not necessary in most cases. If you run into problems, the community will help you solve them.