MSN and AIM are both developed by massive companies, the developers still get paid to create that software even if the software itself isn't paying their wages.
Most free software projects involve dozens of people working in their spare time, what do you think those people do when they're not working on free projects? They're working real jobs to put food on the table, many of them make their money from working on other software which does cost money. It's really easy to say 'no software should require payment', but then you're not the one who has to try and make money from the extreme minority of people who would donate are you? Why should 'business related stuff' cost money but desktop software be free? If software should be free then why not music? And why not television? And then why not books, or cars, or food for that matter? Why does anything cost anything? There's no difference between writing a peice of software and writing a book. There's no difference between designing software and designing a bridge. So what possible reason do you have for why one should be free and the other shouldn't?
You can consider this a 'flame' if you like, but perhaps you should consider why people flame your posts. If you actually think your argument through you'll find your reasoning that software should be free but other things should cost money is completely illogical.
