4 ms·

> I'm not aware of any business like yours (consumer-focused desktop software) that's been successful as donationware, are you? Blender While they do sell boo

> I'm not aware of any business like yours (consumer-focused desktop software) that's been successful as donationware, are you? Blender While they do sell books and DVDs along with various other things in their e-store the majority(?) of their income is from donations "to the cause". They've actually started to become a viable alternative to the Autodesk monopoly and are being used in more and more commercial projects which leads to more donations which makes the software better which leads to more usage, rinse and repeat.

robenkleene 8y ago
This is a great example, I wasn't aware of Blender's funding model. Thanks for sharing! For those interested, blender is crowdfunded and supports six full-time developers, and three part-time developers[1]. There's more interesting details on their funding page[2]. [1]: https://code.blender.org/2018/12/blender-development-fund-projects-for-first-half-2019/ https://code.blender.org/2018/12/blender-development-fund-pr... [2]: https://fund.blender.org https://fund.blender.org
- UncleEntity 8y ago
  They also get a bunch of money together every so often to do their open movie projects which get some major dev support. Gov't art grants, company sponsors and donations. Pro tip: If you want to be famous push some patches their way while they're working on one of them and they put your name in the credits...got my name in the one with the dragon (or maybe the one with the sheep, dunno?)