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Linux journal, firefox and others are all victims of the free of charge obsession of the foss movement, and they all struggle financially. Hoards of developers

Linux journal, firefox and others are all victims of the free of charge obsession of the foss movement, and they all struggle financially. Hoards of developers want to escape their jobs and join wilderness of independent software development, yet they write software that’s free of charge, reducing scarcity and enabling their cloud corporate overlords to monopolise everything they touch at near zero licensing costs. End the free of charge part of foss and save these great products by charging at least enough to stay afloat.

nfoz 7y ago
How do you propose that we charge for FOSS?
- oehpr 7y ago
  Bug bounties. If people want a feature or a bug fixed, they can vote with their wallets. That strikes me as an equitable model. However we need to culturally accept this idea before it can gain traction.
- trilila 7y ago
  Bug bounties are an option, but there are plenty other options. I.e.: do not charge indie devs or small companies until they reach a certain amount of revenue, and make the code available to anyone paying or not - that's what FOSS is about IMO. If there is something that really benefits the world out there, then indeed it can be unlicensed.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    If you make the code available to anyone not paying, why wouldn't the big corps just use that instead of paying?
- majewsky 7y ago
  Universal Basic Income would be a start. I for one would love to do FOSS development full-time, or at least 75% part-time next to a small salaried job.
  - trilila 7y ago
    Well yes, but until that happens we need to keep FOSS afloat somehow.
    - 0xdeadbeefbabe 7y ago
      Won't it float because it is better? I mean I don't have a magic solution except that I'm inclined to remove the F from FOSS.
- xtracto 7y ago
  Publish the source (in github for example) and ask for $$ to download the "official" binary version.
- Avamander 7y ago
  National funding, maybe even EU-wide funding.

nfoz 7y ago

How do you propose that we charge for FOSS?

oehpr 7y ago
Bug bounties. If people want a feature or a bug fixed, they can vote with their wallets. That strikes me as an equitable model. However we need to culturally accept this idea before it can gain traction.
trilila 7y ago
Bug bounties are an option, but there are plenty other options. I.e.: do not charge indie devs or small companies until they reach a certain amount of revenue, and make the code available to anyone paying or not - that's what FOSS is about IMO. If there is something that really benefits the world out there, then indeed it can be unlicensed.
- icebraining 7y ago
  If you make the code available to anyone not paying, why wouldn't the big corps just use that instead of paying?
majewsky 7y ago
Universal Basic Income would be a start. I for one would love to do FOSS development full-time, or at least 75% part-time next to a small salaried job.
- trilila 7y ago
  Well yes, but until that happens we need to keep FOSS afloat somehow.
  - 0xdeadbeefbabe 7y ago
    Won't it float because it is better? I mean I don't have a magic solution except that I'm inclined to remove the F from FOSS.
xtracto 7y ago
Publish the source (in github for example) and ask for $$ to download the "official" binary version.
Avamander 7y ago
National funding, maybe even EU-wide funding.