[jrockway]

I agree with you. I am pretty sure the AGPL exists so that you get the "warm fuzzies" of "open source", but the company that wrote the software can still profit from it as though the source wasn't available. It is also administratively easier than making a "hobbyist edition" for people that want to screw around with the software in their free time in the hopes that they someday make money with it and buy the full version. (Also, in the event that you do license the software and need to make a small customization, it's administratively easier. Just edit the code and you're done, as opposed to the company having to set up a meeting with your team, looping in the sales engineer to see how much to charge you, then having a year of weekly status update meetings to see how your feature is proceeding.)

The problem I have is that I think truly free software is relatively unsustainable. Look at Docker's financials after basically revolutionizing how software is distributed and deployed. Look at big projects like Kubernetes; do you think you would convince investors to fund a project with a pitch like "we're going to give it all away for free with no encumbrances". Nope. It only works when you already made money from writing proprietary software. The AGPL attempts to be a middle ground, which I do respect. I am personally afraid to touch it. So are many other people.