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"You want my free help" that makes me wonder. I thought of it more like this: I'm selling the basic software once-off so that afterwards anyone can customize it

"You want my free help" that makes me wonder. I thought of it more like this: I'm selling the basic software once-off so that afterwards anyone can customize it as he/she pleases. For my taste, it's good enough so that i can use it :) so i'm not really asking for free help. I'm asking for money so that i can share my toys with everyone ;) But you both make a very valid point for making it open source as soon as possible. And it seems as if you have a good overview of the ways to monetize open source. Do you know how companies any of those Open Source companies ensure that none of their competitors just downloads all the source code and sells their exact same product?

sp332 14y ago
They don't. Once you've released the code under an open-source license, anyone (including a competitor) can use the code in any way you allowed in the license. The strongest protection they use is trademarks, not copyrights. For example CentOS is exactly basically the same as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but they can't use Red Hat's name or logos. Also Firefox has several forks, but none of them are allowed to use the Firefox name or logos. Basically, you need to choose your license carefully in order to make sure it reflects what you want to happen with your code. There is a lot of flexibility https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatible...
ajross 14y ago
> I'm asking for money so that i can share my toys with everyone ;) This is the part that I pointed out generally doesn't work. I mean, tough love time: everyone wants to be paid to work on their own open source project. No one wants to pay you to do that. No one. At best, people may want your project (as part of their product, for example) and be willing to pay you (perhaps indirectly) just to know that it's maintained. This is how Linus et. al. make a living. And that's very rare -- you have to have a project that is (1) already there and valuable and (2) meets some need of a party with deep pockets willing to pay for it. The model in your head, where you get to have total control over your project and a paycheck from it is a utopia that doesn't exist, sorry. I don't begrudge you for wanting it, I want it too. I just don't see a path to get there.
Vivtek 14y ago
I'm not sure I can add anything that's not been said already in response to this post, but yeah, you don't make sure somebody else doesn't sell your product better than you. But note this: if it's open source, they have to credit you - and you've got more experience with it than they do. It's thin gruel if you're operating on the "build a product, sell it to people" model. But you're not talking about building a business on this, are you? So sooner or later, you're going to wake up to the fact that nobody's going to pay you to share your toys, any more than a kid on the playground is going to get any love for wanting to play ball but also get paid rent for the glove he's providing.

sp332 14y ago

They don't. Once you've released the code under an open-source license, anyone (including a competitor) can use the code in any way you allowed in the license. The strongest protection they use is trademarks, not copyrights. For example CentOS is exactly basically the same as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but they can't use Red Hat's name or logos. Also Firefox has several forks, but none of them are allowed to use the Firefox name or logos. Basically, you need to choose your license carefully in order to make sure it reflects what you want to happen with your code. There is a lot of flexibility https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatible...

ajross 14y ago

> I'm asking for money so that i can share my toys with everyone ;) This is the part that I pointed out generally doesn't work. I mean, tough love time: everyone wants to be paid to work on their own open source project. No one wants to pay you to do that. No one. At best, people may want your project (as part of their product, for example) and be willing to pay you (perhaps indirectly) just to know that it's maintained. This is how Linus et. al. make a living. And that's very rare -- you have to have a project that is (1) already there and valuable and (2) meets some need of a party with deep pockets willing to pay for it. The model in your head, where you get to have total control over your project and a paycheck from it is a utopia that doesn't exist, sorry. I don't begrudge you for wanting it, I want it too. I just don't see a path to get there.

Vivtek 14y ago

I'm not sure I can add anything that's not been said already in response to this post, but yeah, you don't make sure somebody else doesn't sell your product better than you. But note this: if it's open source, they have to credit you - and you've got more experience with it than they do. It's thin gruel if you're operating on the "build a product, sell it to people" model. But you're not talking about building a business on this, are you? So sooner or later, you're going to wake up to the fact that nobody's going to pay you to share your toys, any more than a kid on the playground is going to get any love for wanting to play ball but also get paid rent for the glove he's providing.