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You don't need to beat microsoft in order to have a viable business. You just need to get enough market share.



But, you also have to be better than what’s freely available by enough to get someone to pay for it. Having a good product isn’t good enough, you have to be significantly better.

Dev tooling is a notoriously difficult space to make money. Free tools tend to win because if a tool costs money, a developer is just as likely to write their own version. (For better or worse)


> Free tools tend to win because if a tool costs money, a developer is just as likely to write their own version.

No, free tools win because a proprietary license is a rent-seeking ball and chain on your means of production.




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