"Linux has been my primary Desktop for about 13 years
now. As such I rarely have to pay for software. Open source is just
awesome that way. Yet when I thought about it I have paid for
Codeweavers Crossover Linux, despite the fact that its available
for free as wine. I've also paid for Zend's Studio for Eclipse even
though much of the functionally is available in the PDT plugin for
Eclipse. While I don't do so currently, I've been known to pay for
SuSE Linux and StarOffice.
"Considering this I realized that I very much enjoyed paid
software for Linux. Not that I'd try to make the claim that paid
support is somehow superior to the community approach (very often
it isn't) . But when my business requires something be fixed it
does make me rest easier knowing that someone is being paid to fix
it. Linux and most of the software that runs on it will always be
available for free,. With just a few moments thoughts however I
realized that there were a handful of products I cheerfully paid
for. So what other software would I be willing to spend money
on?"