Because running services at scale invariably becomes prohibitively expensive, and because the people willing and able to dedicate part of their lives building and maintaining large scale software projects are seldom willing to do so for free forever…
If you run a highly sucessful project, eventually the day will come when you come to a crossroad and you’ll have to choose to either:
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Keep on doing whatever it is your doing for free, eventually becoming a meme and an hero for the community (think Stallman, Linus Torvals)
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Get your hard earned payday by selling off your project to whatever business interest comes knocking.
Thing is people grow older, their priorities change, and for most peoplethe older you get the more attractive the prospect of a big fat payday becomes.
I, for one, think more (if not most) projects should work on a non-profit/infrastructural basis and get their funding through donations, basically like wikipedia.
I’d voter for Lemmys