In reply to Anon.

It's true that most WordPress end-users start using WP simply because is it free rather than making some value-aligned choice about a license. But I couldn't disagree more about the role the having of an OSS license has played to the success of WordPress. There is no way you draw the contributors WordPress has done over the years w/o it. And most hours that have been spent contributing to WP have been unpaid (so here's people paying with their time). Without contributors WordPress doesn't grow and attract the amount of people it does.

You're taking what motivates for people to start using WordPress with what it takes for WordPress to come about as a community backed project and drive its success. Contributors don't contribute just because it's free at the point of download and popular. Thinking that you've figured out what has allowed WP to grow comes solely down to it being free as in beer is just a very poor analysis. You account for that on the basis what motivates people to try something initially without accounting for what it takes for someone to get involved and contribute over the course of years.