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The salary discussion aside. That's what I have always been ad odds with OSS. Nobody is forcing you to put it up for free. Put a price tag on it an sell it. If

The salary discussion aside. That's what I have always been ad odds with OSS. Nobody is forcing you to put it up for free. Put a price tag on it an sell it. If it doesn't sell, lower the price. If it still doesn't sell, good. Stop trying to force adoption on software that cannot sustain itself. Nobody ever heard oracle scrambling for cash.

cblconfederate 5y ago
that would require a total shift in the industry. closed source isn't different, tons of startup are unsustainable and only vie for adoption
mids_hn 5y ago
Under the OSIs definition of open-source, and under the definition of free software, anyone can buy your software and redistribute it to others for free. This effectively limits you to earning money only off the labor of your work, not the work itself, and makes your business model effectively useless. This is such a huge difference yet the FSF, as always, confuse people (maybe even intentionally) by saying that free software can be commercial. No, it cannot. The services you provide can be, the labor you provide can be, but the software - no. You can remove that freedom to the user. After all, the source is available, it can still be tested for malware, but your work won't be open-source.
- greggman3 5y ago
  How does open source get money? According to the original GNU Manifesto from the 1980s > All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: The GNU Manifesto arguably concedes OSS won't make money > In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the postscarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming. https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html
JohnWhigham 5y ago
Put a price tag on it, and then 5 years later Amazon offers it as-a-service and kills you in your sleep.
shados 5y ago
The OSS/donation model is a reaction to how hard it is to sell libraries and dev tools. Between competing open source projects and piracy, it's a race to zero anyway. The moment Babel actually has to be sold for $1 is the moment it dies and everyone still using Babel switches to alternate compilers. The project is surviving on fame, and donation's the easiest way to fund that.

cblconfederate 5y ago

that would require a total shift in the industry. closed source isn't different, tons of startup are unsustainable and only vie for adoption

mids_hn 5y ago

Under the OSIs definition of open-source, and under the definition of free software, anyone can buy your software and redistribute it to others for free. This effectively limits you to earning money only off the labor of your work, not the work itself, and makes your business model effectively useless. This is such a huge difference yet the FSF, as always, confuse people (maybe even intentionally) by saying that free software can be commercial. No, it cannot. The services you provide can be, the labor you provide can be, but the software - no. You can remove that freedom to the user. After all, the source is available, it can still be tested for malware, but your work won't be open-source.

greggman3 5y ago
How does open source get money? According to the original GNU Manifesto from the 1980s > All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: The GNU Manifesto arguably concedes OSS won't make money > In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the postscarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming. https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html

JohnWhigham 5y ago

Put a price tag on it, and then 5 years later Amazon offers it as-a-service and kills you in your sleep.

shados 5y ago

The OSS/donation model is a reaction to how hard it is to sell libraries and dev tools. Between competing open source projects and piracy, it's a race to zero anyway. The moment Babel actually has to be sold for $1 is the moment it dies and everyone still using Babel switches to alternate compilers. The project is surviving on fame, and donation's the easiest way to fund that.