Z:gnu-www-ja-rms-nyu-2001-transcript--16f534-Now, how do free software busi/en

Now, how do free software businesses work? Well, some of them sell copies. You know, you're free to copy it but they can still sell thousands of copies a month. And others sell support and various kinds of services. I, personally, for the second half of the '80's, I sold free software support services. Basically I said, for $200 an hour, I'll change whatever you want me to change in GNU software that I'd written. And, yes, it was a stiff rate, but if it was a program that I was the author of, people would figure that I might get the job done in a lot fewer hours. [Laughter] And I made a living that way. In fact, I'd made more than I'd ever made before. I also taught classes. And I kept doing that until 1990, when I got a big prize and I didn't have to do it any more.