Power BI DESKTOP licensing - is it really free to share pbix files? The Power BI Desktop app for Windows is free, which is great. However, the Microsoft site is loaded with talk of licensing to share/view Power BI content. Is that only for their hosted Power BI SERVICE? 

I want to create reports in Power BI Desktop, and distribute these as .pbix files. Is there any reason I can't distribute these without paying a dime? I realize that Microsoft's goal is to get people into their hosted Power BI service, but using Power BI Desktop (free app) to distribute content for free seems to good too be true.
You are absolutely free to build and distribute .pbix files by file shares or OneDrive, or SharePoint Online.  Eventually this will lead to Power BI Service usage, or at least your team mates will want brand new Surface PCs to run Power BI Desktop.   

And in any case you are investing your precious time in learning the technology and spreading its use.