Transmission ARM no longer free?

If you want to develop your own apps or install Transmission for your own use via SSH you are free to do so but when you consider all the effort you'd need to go to do so, I'd argue the cheaper option would be to support the developer and buy the App.

Now WhoCares? (ReadyNASXtras) spends a lot of time developing his add-ons as does another developer super-poussin (in fact it looks like it's super-poussin who's posted a Genie App for Transmission).

There's a fair bit of work involved in doing things such as:
1. Compile add-on (this can take several hours, if not longer depending on which add-on is installed)
2. If compilation fails fix problem then go back to step 1
3. Test add-on to make sure it works on a range of different firmwares including testing to check that upgrades work smoothly.
4. If there's a problem found testing the add-on, fix the bug and go back to step 1 again

This is a time consuming process particularly for the slower devices (Sparc and to a lesser extent ARM) as compilation, testing etc. takes more time, not only because of the slower processors than x86 but also because of the work involved to get things to run properly. Add-ons depend on a range of other software which may be newer or older than what ships on the ReadyNAS so patching it to work on the ReadyNAS can be quite a bit of work.

You also need to note that the user base for running say Transmission on the ReadyNAS is going to be a lot lower than the userbase of Transmission overall. With the donation ratio being so poor it's not unreasonable for developers to sell their add-ons for a small fee. Without the fee there probably wouldn't be anywhere near as many add-ons available.

I should also note that plenty of people charge for works derived from software licensed under the GPL or other similar licenses. So long as it's clear (which it is) that they're using software licensed under the GPL or similar licenses it's fine.

Do note that on ARM, Genie Apps is the way things are going.