4 ms·
I love the idea and hope it succeeds. The problem is that programmers are cheap and won't pay for open source software.
by tsg94 10y ago
I love the idea and hope it succeeds. The problem is that programmers are cheap and won't pay for open source software.
- JoshTriplett 10y agoI'll happily pay for Open Source software, and have done so many times. This isn't Open Source, though.
- ffggvv 10y agoI'm curious, which ones?
- ohstopitu 10y agoI've donated to Ubuntu (I felt it got me started on programming and interested enough in computers). Usually when I download their desktop OS (~$79/a year)
- JoshTriplett 10y agoI've donated to half a dozen FOSS projects or organizations, and to a couple of individual FOSS developers. For two of those, I provide monthly donations, for more than the typical cost of a proprietary software license. I've paid for crowdfunding projects whose result got released as FOSS. I've also helped arrange corporate donations to FOSS projects.
- mwcampbell 10y agoThe problem is that paying for open-source software isn't something that people do by default in the normal course of obtaining it, as one does when legally obtaining proprietary software, a book, music, etc. It's something that you have to deliberately go out of your way to do. Until that problem is solved, most users won't pay for open-source software, even if they'd have no problem doing so in principle.
- davexunit 10y agoConsider that paying for copies of bits isn't viable and that the proprietary software industry must do nasty things to extract money for copies. Programmer time is valuable, and that is where the money is in FOSS. "Would you like feature X? I need $Y to do it."
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tsg94 10y agoYou're the exception. Github has commoditized software to the point where most programmers think it's worthless.