4 ms·

open source and free (as in beer) software are orthoginal/unrelated concepts you can have for-pay open source apps, no problem

tayistay 5y ago
Sure, you can have a for-pay open source app, but if it's a consumer product (as opposed to, say, some B2B thing with special licensing), then it isn't going anywhere as a business. Many people will just download the code and compile it instead of paying you (or find someone else who packaged it up). That's why open source has been more successful with software-as-service.
- andrekandre 5y ago
  > but if it's a consumer product...then it isn't going anywhere as a business why?
  - EduardoBautista 5y ago
    Do you have an example of a successful open source consumer product business?
    - pdanpdan 5y ago
      PostgreSQL?
      - EduardoBautista 5y ago
        It's not a consumer product.
    - Quot 5y ago
      Just off the top of my head, Aseprite: https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite Onivim: https://v2.onivim.io/ https://v2.onivim.io/ Ardour: https://ardour.org/ https://ardour.org/ Of course, I don't know how successful each of those projects are, but they seem to be successful enough to continue development.
      - EduardoBautista 5y ago
        First one is not an open source and the other two don't appear to be businesses.
    - NoThisIsMe 5y ago
      ONLYOFFICE (not yelling, that's how they stylize it) and Nextcloud
- DanRabbit 5y ago
  I’ve been selling open source software as my full time job for like 7 years now
zaptheimpaler 5y ago
??? Maybe if your userbase is tiny. As soon as it reaches even a 100-200 people someone will compile the source and distribute it for free or copy and resell it cheaper. they sure as heck aren’t orthogonal concepts in practice.
- andrekandre 5y ago
  maybe im way out there but... if you live/sell in a country that respects software copyright/license, then you can sue them or get a cease and desist for using it against your license (say prohibiting commercial derivative or violating your copyright without authorization) and your software, if popular or lucrative, its going to get ripped off anyways like in the real app store (just look at the many clones of many apps), or just plain pirated like the myriad apps (photoshop, word et all) have since basically forever am i way off-base?
  - reedciccio 5y ago
    > if you live/sell in a country that respects software copyright/license, then you can sue them or get a cease and desist for using it against your license (say prohibiting commercial derivative or violating your copyright without authorization) Prohibition of derivative makes your software not open source But you can use trademark, instead of copyright to prevent someone else to sell copies of your app. Sort of what Red hat does but that doesn't prevent clones with a different name to pop up.
    - andrekandre 5y ago
      > Prohibition of derivative makes your software not open source hmmm right, maybe my understanding was a little different, i was assuming "if you pay me, ill give you the source if you ask for it" would make it "open source" but that would be incorrect ...

tayistay 5y ago

Sure, you can have a for-pay open source app, but if it's a consumer product (as opposed to, say, some B2B thing with special licensing), then it isn't going anywhere as a business. Many people will just download the code and compile it instead of paying you (or find someone else who packaged it up). That's why open source has been more successful with software-as-service.

andrekandre 5y ago
> but if it's a consumer product...then it isn't going anywhere as a business why?
- EduardoBautista 5y ago
  Do you have an example of a successful open source consumer product business?
  - pdanpdan 5y ago
    PostgreSQL?
    - EduardoBautista 5y ago
      It's not a consumer product.
  - Quot 5y ago
    Just off the top of my head, Aseprite: https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite Onivim: https://v2.onivim.io/ https://v2.onivim.io/ Ardour: https://ardour.org/ https://ardour.org/ Of course, I don't know how successful each of those projects are, but they seem to be successful enough to continue development.
    - EduardoBautista 5y ago
      First one is not an open source and the other two don't appear to be businesses.
  - NoThisIsMe 5y ago
    ONLYOFFICE (not yelling, that's how they stylize it) and Nextcloud
DanRabbit 5y ago
I’ve been selling open source software as my full time job for like 7 years now

zaptheimpaler 5y ago

??? Maybe if your userbase is tiny. As soon as it reaches even a 100-200 people someone will compile the source and distribute it for free or copy and resell it cheaper. they sure as heck aren’t orthogonal concepts in practice.

andrekandre 5y ago
maybe im way out there but... if you live/sell in a country that respects software copyright/license, then you can sue them or get a cease and desist for using it against your license (say prohibiting commercial derivative or violating your copyright without authorization) and your software, if popular or lucrative, its going to get ripped off anyways like in the real app store (just look at the many clones of many apps), or just plain pirated like the myriad apps (photoshop, word et all) have since basically forever am i way off-base?
- reedciccio 5y ago
  > if you live/sell in a country that respects software copyright/license, then you can sue them or get a cease and desist for using it against your license (say prohibiting commercial derivative or violating your copyright without authorization) Prohibition of derivative makes your software not open source But you can use trademark, instead of copyright to prevent someone else to sell copies of your app. Sort of what Red hat does but that doesn't prevent clones with a different name to pop up.
  - andrekandre 5y ago
    > Prohibition of derivative makes your software not open source hmmm right, maybe my understanding was a little different, i was assuming "if you pay me, ill give you the source if you ask for it" would make it "open source" but that would be incorrect ...