i think it could work if the cost is low enough that it works out to no more than longer term (eg i pay ~$100/y for intelliJ IDE, i just paid for Zorin OS Pro also because they were the only distro that was supporting new AMD video cards, i think i'd be happy to throw at least $150/year at keeping my core systems and tools in shape, hell, i'd pay to see Go maintained if it weren't already making so much money for google