This isn’t the only example. XChat, one of the darlings of FOSS, is freeware for all platforms except Windows, whereby the author asks for $20 US.

Again, they tout freedom but don’t seem too concerned about limiting it. Particularly ironic is how they beat us over the head with that silly MicrosoftTax trademark, yet it seems FOSS developers are the ones penalizing people for using Windows.

You can fork it and remove these restrictions, can you do that for M$ as well? I don’t think so.

You know, when software authors try to force you to use some other OS, this is the TRUE meaning of freedom. But at least, they admit that the fee is there because they want to push Linux, not like XChat, where the author whines about how crucially difficult it is to port it to Windows, though there are guides available how about anyone with a compiler could do it.

Power-shell laughs at the mess that is bash.

@ChrisTX

It doesn’t matter what Microsoft (oops, sorry, I mean m$) does or doesn’t do… if the Linux crowd talks about freedom out the one end of their mouth but imposes restrictions out the other, they’re no better than their own enemy. As I said, it’s YOU guys imposing restrictions and fees in this case, NOT Microsoft.

“at least they admit the fee is there because they wanna push Linux”

What self-righteous bollocks is that? Contradicting their mantra of freedom is okay because 1) they admit it and 2) it promotes Linux? Sorry dude, but hypocrisy is never justified, and it hurts your cause far more than it promotes it.

Having said all that I’m almost sorry to like Xchat enough to have paid for it.

First I felt guilty, but then I realized that I’m subverting the FSF and the GPL by intentionally paying a developer for a good piece of software ;)