Sure, FOSS is a thing... but plenty of software ain't FOSS.
Re: regulation... Plenty of software is regulated by law. Ever heard of PCI compliance? Banking? Insurance? Tax prep? Medicine? Military? Flight avionics? ... All of those industries are heavily regulated by law, and some ofbthose regulations govern their software, too.
Plenty are, like the one I wrote:
Doom, one of the most famous and played games of all time, is also free.
https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/doom/
> AWS
is a hardware service.
> Do Apple and Google let you use all their mobile apps for free?
Do you see the word "all" in your sentence? I didn't say "all". You modified what I wrote.
> All of those industries are heavily regulated by law
And the software under those regulations is expensive. See a pattern there?
Also, your original statements are both phrased in a way that implies "all". You failed to qualify blanket statements by saying (e.g.) "some". So if you don't want to admit you're wrong, fine: You're doing a poor job of communicating your thoughts.
As to evidence of that, just count the number of replies you got that came to the same conclusion I did about an implied "all" versus an implied "some".
Not like it matters, anyway... The counter-example if games alone pretty much kills your whole argument about regulation being correlated with higher prices.
I think you are clearly a very smart person, and a very good programmer, who is suffering from the Dunning Krueger Effect in relation to the topic of Economics. Regulation can effect costs, but it's far from the only factor, and it's not even necessarily an important factor depending on the situation.
Most games in a retail setting, sure. But there are plenty of online free games, more than you can count.
> an implied "all" versus an implied "some".
The absence of a modifier means "in general", not "some". C'mon, this is basic English. You know it, I know it.
> The counter-example if games alone
Neither you nor I have any idea how many free games are out there.
> Regulation can effect costs, but it's far from the only factor
I didn't say it was the only factor. Sheesh. I'd prefer you stop inserting words into what I wrote to create a strawman.
I think these days a better example are free to play games such as League of Legends or Call of Duty Warzone, which can be played for years without paying a dollar.