HN user
The miscommunication here is a question of scale. $40 a month doesn't put a dent in your budget when you're paying six figure labor costs at the same interval.
That all being said, I have no intention of writing OSS for a living. I contribute to FOSS for fun only, and I set my own schedule outside my day job.
Yeah, but on the other hand, when you start charging for something, people automatically feel entitled to expect the world from you. I'm not saying they don't already do that for people who donate their labor to a project, but I'm saying the abuse might get worse. They're now "paying customers."
most people won't pay for software if ... they don't have a vested interest in the project succeeding.
Wouldn't you expect companies that rely on a given project to have a vested interest in the project succeeding? I wouldn't choose to spend who-knows-how-many man hours on migrating to a new technology instead of paying a modest (for a business) fee for licensing something I rely on.
That part seems made up. I don't think the watch possesses the capability for the level of remote control they are talking about, especially on production builds.