I've only recently begun to learn about the tensions between free and proprietary software, and I've been very confused by the way that free software can make money.I understand that free software is free as in speech, not as in beer, but if I release an open source program and then try to monetize it, what could possibly prevent someone from forking that software and creating a proprietary version?Is the only thing that stops them the investment of other members of the open source community in improving the software?It seems like every improvement free software makes is transparent so a proprietary copycat can make sure they are always up to date with the latest features in the free version, and then add their own features on top of that independently. I'm confused about how free software can survive in serious competition with proprietary software.
If I try to monetize free software, what could possibly prevent someone from forking that software and creating a proprietary version?
free software;proprietary
There are two answers here, because there are two principal ways to look at this.First, sometimes free software thrives in competition with proprietary software because it wasn't designed to make money in the first place.  That's not the only thing that motivates people, after all.But if you're looking for a way to monetize free software, you're absolutely right in saying that anyone could fork it and use it to compete with you.  What you have to do, then, is what other successful services which run on open-sourced platforms have done: build value beyond the software itself.Reddit is open source, for example.  If I wanted to, I could download it and host a Reddit instance of my own.  But you know as well as I do that that wouldn't do me much good, because I'd still be missing the thing that truly makes Reddit valuable: the large community of users.The key to making money off of something with little to no inherent monetary value--such as software that anyone can obtain for free--is by providing a related service that does have a high value, such as connecting people together and making it easier for them to communicate with each other.