This philosophy is disingenuous. To say it's "not about price" is side-stepping a major issue with the freedom of free software.
If I sell you my software with a "free as in freedom" license, you're now free to give it away yourself.
So "free as in freedom" does also mean "free as in it costs you nothing" for everyone except the first customer.
To be clear, I LOVE free software. I just also think it's more honest to say it's free in every sense of the word. This debate about "free as in free beer" versus "free as in freedom" is pedantic.
Pragmatically speaking, I can't give you full freedom to modify and distribute my software without immediately reducing the market value of that software to zero. They go hand in hand.
(Does that mean there are no business models for free software? Of course not. There are many proven ones, such as paid hosting of it, paid support and maintenance, paid customizations, etc. But the code itself is free in every sense of the word once you've granted that license to the first buyer.)
If I sell you my software with a "free as in freedom" license, you're now free to give it away yourself.
So "free as in freedom" does also mean "free as in it costs you nothing" for everyone except the first customer.
To be clear, I LOVE free software. I just also think it's more honest to say it's free in every sense of the word. This debate about "free as in free beer" versus "free as in freedom" is pedantic.
Pragmatically speaking, I can't give you full freedom to modify and distribute my software without immediately reducing the market value of that software to zero. They go hand in hand.
(Does that mean there are no business models for free software? Of course not. There are many proven ones, such as paid hosting of it, paid support and maintenance, paid customizations, etc. But the code itself is free in every sense of the word once you've granted that license to the first buyer.)