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Free open source software funded by donations is evil because it undermines Google’s ads business. Free must be free with ads, not free with donations. Richard Stallman was right. :^)

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You’re free to add “donation” buttons on your app you publish on either the App Store or the Play Store but Apple and Google still get their 30% cut. You can’t (currently) get around it by linking to your website and asking for donations there.

That's not true, both stores only allow this (the "donation" button) for registered charities and foundations.

Which is why I put it in scare quotes since they’re not charitable donations that have special status. They’re just regular purchases but with nothing attached to them — “pay what you want”, “support development”, “buy me a coffee.”

Google and Apple (for now) say that this is just normal app revenue.

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