[api]

What people will pay for X is not at all rational. The market has been taught that most software is free, and that coffees cost five bucks. That is what people expect, so that is what they pay.

Another reason is that it's tough to compete with free. FOSS edges out paid developer and systems tools everywhere but the high end or specialized niches, and surveillance capitalism provides a model whereby huge SaaS stacks for social media and communication can be not only offered but aggressively pushed for "free." These are not free, but the cost is quite hidden.

Lastly I think the added friction of paying, licensing, and license management is a factor. Anything that adds friction slows adoption a lot.

[flomk]

While I definitely agree that FOSS is good enough that makes it paying for software that does the same thing less appealing, the average person that I talked about in my post doesn’t use and usually isn’t even aware of FOSS.