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>Open source developers shouldn't be forced to lock away additional functionality in their app The additional feature can just be text that says thanks for the

>Open source developers shouldn't be forced to lock away additional functionality in their app The additional feature can just be text that says thanks for the money, feel free to give us more money in the future.

benj111 7y ago
Is that still technically open source compatible? Edit: I'm referring to https://opensource.org/osd https://opensource.org/osd Edit2: Having read round some more, it seems you possibly could sell a different version, of course you would have to offer the source code which others would be free to give away, (this is for the gpl). I don't know if the discrimination clause of the Open Source Definition would come into play though.
phkahler 7y ago
Better yet, just charge a dollar for the app. Link from the primary website to the app store, so people can buy the right one.
- dTal 7y ago
  No thanks. If I'm donating to a good cause, I don't want the App Mafia taking a 30% cut. That just reinforces this bad behavior.
  - ndarwincorn 7y ago
    It's sort of a convenience fee. I agree with your App Mafia take but my guess is folks that can't be troubled to use F-Droid probably weren't going to donate in the first place. For instance, D-Sub is available for free on F-Droid but costs something like ~$4 on Google Play. AndOTP is available on F-Droid, not sure about Wireguard but I'd assume so.
    - imhoguy 7y ago
      > For instance, D-Sub is available for free on F-Droid but costs something like ~$4 on Google Play. This is great solution to sustain the app developmant and spread the word about F-Droid!
  - kgersen75 7y ago
    so the App Mafia is supposed to host your app for free? provide the bandwidth to download it for free ? give visibility to your app thru search in the store for free ? at some point someone gonna pay for the datacenters, the wires and all these stuff needed for software distribution. Try running your own site on your own servers and paying for the data traffic and then do the math. 30% is ok
    - megous 7y ago
      Ok, let's do the math: Say app has 10MiB, 100,000 downloads is ~1TiB, 1 have a 1GiB/20GiB VPS with that monthly bandwidth which I pay $1/month. So distributing 100,000 copies costs $1. I'll give Google $1 for distribution of 100000 copies of my app. Fair? Yeah, I'll give Google a bit more for payment processing, perhaps. But actual distribution costs nothing really, for most apps.
      - saint_fiasco 7y ago
        Google also does the work of keeping fake versions of your app out of the store. I remember that being a problem in the app store for windows phones. Lots of fake apps that used the VLC name and logo, for example.
        enginaar 7y ago
        Android is worth sh*t without any apps. I consider providing a market for apps and managing the quality of the market is their responsibility, business expense not developers.
      - iokanuon 7y ago
        Remember that creating a Google Play account already costs $20, so for the most people the distribution costs are far more than covered.
      - kgersen75 7y ago
        you completely ignore the #1 cost: human cost to setup your vps, manage it, backups and whatnot etc. you gotta take all costs into account. not every developer is willing to learn and spend time configuring & managing a server. that's not the same skill set.

benj111 7y ago

Is that still technically open source compatible? Edit: I'm referring to https://opensource.org/osd https://opensource.org/osd Edit2: Having read round some more, it seems you possibly could sell a different version, of course you would have to offer the source code which others would be free to give away, (this is for the gpl). I don't know if the discrimination clause of the Open Source Definition would come into play though.

phkahler 7y ago

Better yet, just charge a dollar for the app. Link from the primary website to the app store, so people can buy the right one.

dTal 7y ago
No thanks. If I'm donating to a good cause, I don't want the App Mafia taking a 30% cut. That just reinforces this bad behavior.
- ndarwincorn 7y ago
  It's sort of a convenience fee. I agree with your App Mafia take but my guess is folks that can't be troubled to use F-Droid probably weren't going to donate in the first place. For instance, D-Sub is available for free on F-Droid but costs something like ~$4 on Google Play. AndOTP is available on F-Droid, not sure about Wireguard but I'd assume so.
  - imhoguy 7y ago
    > For instance, D-Sub is available for free on F-Droid but costs something like ~$4 on Google Play. This is great solution to sustain the app developmant and spread the word about F-Droid!
- kgersen75 7y ago
  so the App Mafia is supposed to host your app for free? provide the bandwidth to download it for free ? give visibility to your app thru search in the store for free ? at some point someone gonna pay for the datacenters, the wires and all these stuff needed for software distribution. Try running your own site on your own servers and paying for the data traffic and then do the math. 30% is ok
  - megous 7y ago
    Ok, let's do the math: Say app has 10MiB, 100,000 downloads is ~1TiB, 1 have a 1GiB/20GiB VPS with that monthly bandwidth which I pay $1/month. So distributing 100,000 copies costs $1. I'll give Google $1 for distribution of 100000 copies of my app. Fair? Yeah, I'll give Google a bit more for payment processing, perhaps. But actual distribution costs nothing really, for most apps.
    - saint_fiasco 7y ago
      Google also does the work of keeping fake versions of your app out of the store. I remember that being a problem in the app store for windows phones. Lots of fake apps that used the VLC name and logo, for example.
      - enginaar 7y ago
        Android is worth sh*t without any apps. I consider providing a market for apps and managing the quality of the market is their responsibility, business expense not developers.
    - iokanuon 7y ago
      Remember that creating a Google Play account already costs $20, so for the most people the distribution costs are far more than covered.
    - kgersen75 7y ago
      you completely ignore the #1 cost: human cost to setup your vps, manage it, backups and whatnot etc. you gotta take all costs into account. not every developer is willing to learn and spend time configuring & managing a server. that's not the same skill set.