Z:gnu-www-ja-rieti--dda25c-Free software business already/en

Free software business already exists. In fact, I started a free software business in 1985. I was selling copies of GNU Emacs. I was looking for a way to make money through free software. So I said, &ldquo;Pay me $150, and I will mail you a tape with the GNU Emacs text editor.&rdquo; People started paying me, and I mailed them tapes. I made enough money to live on. I stopped this because I started the Free Software Foundation, and it seemed appropriate for the Free Software Foundation to start distributing GNU Emacs. I did not want to compete with the Free Software Foundation, so I had to find a different way. For several years, the Foundation made enough money this way to pay several employees, including programmers. So actually, if I had done it myself, I would probably have become comfortably well off by selling copies of free software.