5 ms·

Not a bad business strategy. Kinda like MySQL back then right?

cperciva 15y ago
Sadly, it seems that "give them free crap and then charge for fixes" is a very common business model in the open source world.
- hello_moto 15y ago
  Better than asking for big pile of money and give back crap and charge way more for fixes isn't it? :)
  - cperciva 15y ago
    Yes. But I think asking happy users to donate ultimately produces better code than asking unhappy users to pay for support.
    - hello_moto 15y ago
      So true. So true. I wish happy users would donate more as well. Unfortunately when happy users get used to the culture of free and good quality software, they started to have a sense of entitlement (instead of donating). That if the software didn't provide exactly what they wanted, they starting to swear and whine instead of being... calm and helpful.
      - einhverfr 15y ago
        I think a big part of the entitlement problem is not being clear about the business model, or positioning oneself to take advantage of it. One key thing is, I think, to advertise services and ways of making money. IOW, giving people the option to get new features, etc. is an important thing. There is a lot of solid FOSS out there: PostgreSQL, BSD, Linux, CUPS, and more all come to mind. These often are less sexy than heavily marketed, inferior counterparts. But these all also have solid business models attached. I highly recommend that folks who start open source software look around at business models surrounding the better open source products and see what they can do to capitalize on that.
    - einhverfr 15y ago
      Long run, one wants happy users to donate sales/marketing effort with recommendations, and pay for development of new features. I'd MUCH rather be paid to produce new features than fix bugs.
- jeltz 15y ago
  I am really happy that this does not exist in the PostgreSQL community despite many of the core developers being consultants who live off solving their clients' problems with PostgreSQL. Maybe this is because it is a community project with no single company in control of it.
  - cperciva 15y ago
    Maybe this is because it is a community project with no single company in control of it. Yes. In an organization like Postgresql, someone's contribution is measured by how much they contribute to the code. In an organization like Mysql, someone's contribution is measured by how much they contribute to the bottom line.
  - hello_moto 15y ago
    Unfortunately solid software projects do not get much love these days. SQLite. FreeBSD. OpenBSD. PostgreSQL. Python (there are some, but Ruby took the thunder).
  - _delirium 15y ago
    It also started out as a research project, so for the first 10 years or so of its life, the main incentives for the developers were whether it was producing interesting research papers, rather than number of users.

Sadly, it seems that "give them free crap and then charge for fixes" is a very common business model in the open source world.

hello_moto 15y ago
Better than asking for big pile of money and give back crap and charge way more for fixes isn't it? :)
- cperciva 15y ago
  Yes. But I think asking happy users to donate ultimately produces better code than asking unhappy users to pay for support.
  - hello_moto 15y ago
    So true. So true. I wish happy users would donate more as well. Unfortunately when happy users get used to the culture of free and good quality software, they started to have a sense of entitlement (instead of donating). That if the software didn't provide exactly what they wanted, they starting to swear and whine instead of being... calm and helpful.
    - einhverfr 15y ago
      I think a big part of the entitlement problem is not being clear about the business model, or positioning oneself to take advantage of it. One key thing is, I think, to advertise services and ways of making money. IOW, giving people the option to get new features, etc. is an important thing. There is a lot of solid FOSS out there: PostgreSQL, BSD, Linux, CUPS, and more all come to mind. These often are less sexy than heavily marketed, inferior counterparts. But these all also have solid business models attached. I highly recommend that folks who start open source software look around at business models surrounding the better open source products and see what they can do to capitalize on that.
  - einhverfr 15y ago
    Long run, one wants happy users to donate sales/marketing effort with recommendations, and pay for development of new features. I'd MUCH rather be paid to produce new features than fix bugs.
jeltz 15y ago
I am really happy that this does not exist in the PostgreSQL community despite many of the core developers being consultants who live off solving their clients' problems with PostgreSQL. Maybe this is because it is a community project with no single company in control of it.
- cperciva 15y ago
  Maybe this is because it is a community project with no single company in control of it. Yes. In an organization like Postgresql, someone's contribution is measured by how much they contribute to the code. In an organization like Mysql, someone's contribution is measured by how much they contribute to the bottom line.
- hello_moto 15y ago
  Unfortunately solid software projects do not get much love these days. SQLite. FreeBSD. OpenBSD. PostgreSQL. Python (there are some, but Ruby took the thunder).
- _delirium 15y ago
  It also started out as a research project, so for the first 10 years or so of its life, the main incentives for the developers were whether it was producing interesting research papers, rather than number of users.