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Assuming you write open source software, how do you persuade people to pay for it?
by stormdennis 6y ago
Assuming you write open source software, how do you persuade people to pay for it?
- fsflover 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_models_for_open-source_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_models_for_open-sourc...
- stormdennis 6y agoI don't think any of those models would work in the small business sector that I provide niche software for. The big open source projects supported by the likes of Facebook etc work because writing software is something Facebook do as an aid to their business rather than it being their business per se. So contributing to open source software is purely a way of reducing their own costs and maybe getting some kudos. If your fundamental business is writing software that you need to sell to people then making it open source makes as much sense as a corner shop operating on an honour system.
- rayiner 6y agoOne of the key ones in that list is advertising supported software, which is in my opinion less moral than proprietary software. Android and Chrome fit squarely into that bucket.
- yani 6y agoSaaS model like GitLab but I read here yesterday that community edition != paid/enterprise edition. GPL license for free use. Charge for commercial use like Qt ... but apperently this is not working well.
- syockit 6y agoThe paid/enterprise-only extensions are still immoral though? How do you completely eliminate immorality from your software/service, other than charging only for technical support and prioritized bugfix? (I take it that's you were concerned regarding community edition != paid/enterprise edition)