4 ms·

Have these guys figured out how to make money yet?

by krupan 1y ago

dcreager 1y ago
We're going to set up a lemonade stand in the main hall at PyCon next week
- digdugdirk 1y ago
  Fingers crossed this isn't a joke.
  - dcreager 1y ago
    Well, it is a joke...but that said, we're hosting a happy hour which is kinda similar! https://partiful.com/e/Dcrv6XA8PjWTK5Zhw8yr https://partiful.com/e/Dcrv6XA8PjWTK5Zhw8yr
    - bb88 1y ago
      I'm looking forward to talking with you guys.
    - ensignavenger 1y ago
      But are you going to actually make money from it? I am quite leery of companies releasing awesome open source code, growing and taking on massive financing (based largely on that growth, which they achieved because of being open source) then after becoming entrenched in the market, bitching and whining about not "capturing enough value" from their open source code. (And often, switching to an non open source license, while simultaneously declaring their love for open source!) Now, I know you folks haven't ever done that, but it is such a pattern lately that I almost expect it from any for profit company whose primary product is open source. I don't want to judge you based on the actions of others... but the pattern is so well established now that I have to exercise caution. Now, in the end, I simply switch to whatever open source fork or alternative crops up (or already exists). But it makes it hard for me to go "Hey everyone, you should be using Astral's X because they are awesome and X is awesome and X is open source. And do 'y'[code contributions, financial sponsorship, buy support from them- whatever it might be] to make sure to support Astral and their development of the open source X code!" ... because I am anticipating the rug pull, taking the trademark and brand down the tube with it. Yet, I really, really, really want to support you folks. I want to tell everyone about your great products. I want to encourage them to use your product and to support you financially.
- all2 1y ago
  This might actually be a decent business model. Sell hard goods to fund your habit of making excellent software tools.
joshdavham 1y ago
I'm curious to see what Astral will cook up! I assume they'll probably eventually create some sort of paid devtool service. With that being said, the worst case scenario is that they go caput, but that still leaves the python community with a set of incredible new rust-based tools. So definitely a net win for the python community either way!
__MatrixMan__ 1y ago
If they're making our lives better, perhaps the question is whether we've figured out how to pay them yet.
- codr7 1y ago
  From my experience it's VERY rare for people to pay for anything unless they're forced, I do the same thing even though I'm very aware of the need for compensating creators. Talk is cheap, and people talk a lot about supporting projects. Maybe if we could make some kind of statistics over the number of projects that were abandoned because maintainers didn't feel like working and dealing with random people for free anymore. Make the consequences of freeloading visible somehow.
  - __MatrixMan__ 1y ago
    That has been my experience as well. I consider it a bug. I'm not proposing that we all just try harder to be altruistic, but rather that we craft some institution for rewarding people who have solved problems for many without encumbering those solutions with a monetization scheme. Make like, a week long "holiday" where you either verify that your company has made an adequate donation to the OSS maintainers that make their products possible, or we all just go on strike for that week. Or... something. I'm sure somebody has a better idea than mine, lets get creative.
    - bdzr 1y ago
      > I'm not proposing that we all just try harder to be altruistic, but rather that we craft some institution for rewarding people who have solved problems for many without encumbering those solutions with a monetization scheme. > I'm sure somebody has a better idea than mine, lets get creative. Every creative scheme I've seen someone try to come up with fails to do what charging money for a product can. Charge money for stuff, have a free tier, enjoy sustainable software.
      - __MatrixMan__ 1y ago
never_inline 1y ago
They might pivot to some enterprise value added services. Probably around SAST - think sonarqube.

Have these guys figured out how to make money yet?

by krupan 1y ago

Have these guys figured out how to make money yet?

dcreager 1y ago

We're going to set up a lemonade stand in the main hall at PyCon next week

digdugdirk 1y ago
Fingers crossed this isn't a joke.
- dcreager 1y ago
  Well, it is a joke...but that said, we're hosting a happy hour which is kinda similar! https://partiful.com/e/Dcrv6XA8PjWTK5Zhw8yr https://partiful.com/e/Dcrv6XA8PjWTK5Zhw8yr
  - bb88 1y ago
    I'm looking forward to talking with you guys.
  - ensignavenger 1y ago
    But are you going to actually make money from it? I am quite leery of companies releasing awesome open source code, growing and taking on massive financing (based largely on that growth, which they achieved because of being open source) then after becoming entrenched in the market, bitching and whining about not "capturing enough value" from their open source code. (And often, switching to an non open source license, while simultaneously declaring their love for open source!) Now, I know you folks haven't ever done that, but it is such a pattern lately that I almost expect it from any for profit company whose primary product is open source. I don't want to judge you based on the actions of others... but the pattern is so well established now that I have to exercise caution. Now, in the end, I simply switch to whatever open source fork or alternative crops up (or already exists). But it makes it hard for me to go "Hey everyone, you should be using Astral's X because they are awesome and X is awesome and X is open source. And do 'y'[code contributions, financial sponsorship, buy support from them- whatever it might be] to make sure to support Astral and their development of the open source X code!" ... because I am anticipating the rug pull, taking the trademark and brand down the tube with it. Yet, I really, really, really want to support you folks. I want to tell everyone about your great products. I want to encourage them to use your product and to support you financially.
all2 1y ago
This might actually be a decent business model. Sell hard goods to fund your habit of making excellent software tools.

joshdavham 1y ago

I'm curious to see what Astral will cook up! I assume they'll probably eventually create some sort of paid devtool service. With that being said, the worst case scenario is that they go caput, but that still leaves the python community with a set of incredible new rust-based tools. So definitely a net win for the python community either way!

__MatrixMan__ 1y ago

If they're making our lives better, perhaps the question is whether we've figured out how to pay them yet.

codr7 1y ago
From my experience it's VERY rare for people to pay for anything unless they're forced, I do the same thing even though I'm very aware of the need for compensating creators. Talk is cheap, and people talk a lot about supporting projects. Maybe if we could make some kind of statistics over the number of projects that were abandoned because maintainers didn't feel like working and dealing with random people for free anymore. Make the consequences of freeloading visible somehow.
- __MatrixMan__ 1y ago
  That has been my experience as well. I consider it a bug. I'm not proposing that we all just try harder to be altruistic, but rather that we craft some institution for rewarding people who have solved problems for many without encumbering those solutions with a monetization scheme. Make like, a week long "holiday" where you either verify that your company has made an adequate donation to the OSS maintainers that make their products possible, or we all just go on strike for that week. Or... something. I'm sure somebody has a better idea than mine, lets get creative.
  - bdzr 1y ago
    > I'm not proposing that we all just try harder to be altruistic, but rather that we craft some institution for rewarding people who have solved problems for many without encumbering those solutions with a monetization scheme. > I'm sure somebody has a better idea than mine, lets get creative. Every creative scheme I've seen someone try to come up with fails to do what charging money for a product can. Charge money for stuff, have a free tier, enjoy sustainable software.
    - __MatrixMan__ 1y ago

never_inline 1y ago

They might pivot to some enterprise value added services. Probably around SAST - think sonarqube.