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Donate button is not the only option though. You don't have to publicly host binaries or sourcecode for your product - only make them available after payment (a

Donate button is not the only option though. You don't have to publicly host binaries or sourcecode for your product - only make them available after payment (ardour for example requires payment to access pre-built binaries). And offering paid support or development is not unheard of either.

stormdennis 6y ago
My software interacts with other commercial software in a very loose way. It just calls the other software passing some arguments. The first thing you see appearing when that opens up is who it's licensed to. I've seen the same licensee's name appear numerous times. As I said I work in a niche and these guys have WhatsApp groups and the like and pass stuff around. A group of them formed a brand, just a common website really, and then tried to beat me down on support costs despite the fact that forming this group had zero effect on my workload,same number of shops, same separate workforces. They don't always activate Windows, I doubt if their MS Office is always legal, they skimp on general tech support and try to get me to do that for free cos if their network is down my software doesn't work properly so it's my problem. One of them who's still my customer did try and pirate my software in a new shop and it was a few months before he had to come clean because it was obvious that support calls were coming from two locations over a hundred miles apart which had the same licence. If these guys had the source code the first thing they'd do is hire someone in India and see if he could replace me.
- welterde 6y ago
  That sounds like a real fun customer group (which I personally would try to get rid of asap). And open source vs. closed source doesn't really drastically change anything here, since you could just charge support per installation (and they could try to lie about how many installations there are, etc.).
  - stormdennis 6y ago
    That's small businesses for you. Not all of them are like that by any means but enough are to be difficult to consider losing, income wise, with no guarantee I could replace them. As I said, if they had the source code, I think they'd try and exploit some third world coder to both maintain and extend the product and say goodbye to me
    - easytiger 6y ago
      > I think they'd try and exploit some third world coder to both maintain and extend the product and say goodbye to me Care to elaborate on that statement? Is there something wrong with jobs at local market rates? No different to how you are paid.
      - stormdennis 6y ago
        People who are willing to pirate software other people in their industry pay for, want to pay zero if they can. It's all about cheap.

stormdennis 6y ago

My software interacts with other commercial software in a very loose way. It just calls the other software passing some arguments. The first thing you see appearing when that opens up is who it's licensed to. I've seen the same licensee's name appear numerous times. As I said I work in a niche and these guys have WhatsApp groups and the like and pass stuff around. A group of them formed a brand, just a common website really, and then tried to beat me down on support costs despite the fact that forming this group had zero effect on my workload,same number of shops, same separate workforces. They don't always activate Windows, I doubt if their MS Office is always legal, they skimp on general tech support and try to get me to do that for free cos if their network is down my software doesn't work properly so it's my problem. One of them who's still my customer did try and pirate my software in a new shop and it was a few months before he had to come clean because it was obvious that support calls were coming from two locations over a hundred miles apart which had the same licence. If these guys had the source code the first thing they'd do is hire someone in India and see if he could replace me.

welterde 6y ago
That sounds like a real fun customer group (which I personally would try to get rid of asap). And open source vs. closed source doesn't really drastically change anything here, since you could just charge support per installation (and they could try to lie about how many installations there are, etc.).
- stormdennis 6y ago
  That's small businesses for you. Not all of them are like that by any means but enough are to be difficult to consider losing, income wise, with no guarantee I could replace them. As I said, if they had the source code, I think they'd try and exploit some third world coder to both maintain and extend the product and say goodbye to me
  - easytiger 6y ago
    > I think they'd try and exploit some third world coder to both maintain and extend the product and say goodbye to me Care to elaborate on that statement? Is there something wrong with jobs at local market rates? No different to how you are paid.
    - stormdennis 6y ago
      People who are willing to pirate software other people in their industry pay for, want to pay zero if they can. It's all about cheap.