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Fairware: an interesting experiment in getting paid for Open Source

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mouser:
I would take CLEAN Shareware with LIBERAL licensing over a lot of the freeware I see these days, and willingly pay for it.
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I feel you.. And my larger programs with the need to download a free license key are very much in dangerous territory here, and get regular flack for that.  It's something we really do have to constantly be vigilant about and worry about crossing the line over.  And it's something i keep thinking about how to eliminate..

And I have railed over and over again about us entering an age where everything is "free" but hides ulterior convoluted system of advertising and manipulation and indirect money making, etc.

You can count me as one of those people that believes our brains are getting scrambled by all this crazy indirect system of extracting money from people by creating long chains of confusion.. where printers are free but ink is marked up insanely -- and the crazy things that become necessary with such an economy.  I believe it is far better to have a clear direct financial interaction with the person benefiting from a product or service.


I think part of the discussion on this thread has involved the the issue that many people get very turned off by the confusion/complexity of the whole donationware thing, and many people would prefer the simplicity of just paying a fixed price and PURCHASING the software.  But then finding a way to do that and make your software available for free is tricky.

The cleanest solution that some people seem to do well with is "Free for personal use" -- and for software that has a good share of the commercial market that seems like a nice straightforward approach based on the honor system.  Just not easy to use when your software is mainly targeted at home users.  Plus I think it ignores the issue i've tried to raise before, which is that there is something special that seems to happen when you accept donations from your users -- it seems to me from experience at DonationCoder that it really does lead to a unique and rewarding relationship that I wouldn't want to lose.

And getting back to a point you were making, I also think that the freeware/opensource community can fall into a trap of viewing software/shareware companies as somehow less noble than free software.  I think we've tried hard here on DC to not do that.  Shareware and Programmers being able to make money off of their hard work is a good and noble thing.  We are in the same boat of being small fish in a pond of very greedy sharks.

hsoft:
If you want to sell your software, just call it Shareware. One of my pieces of software *never* expires has almost every function fully functional indefinitely. However, since it isn't 100% freeware, I must label is Shareware - else be crucified. Can I now call it 'Fairware?' (with a few tweaks?). I guess I could.. does that get me 'extra credit' or any extra purchasers? I doubt it.
-db90h (October 12, 2011, 01:31 AM)
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The big difference between Shareware and Fairware is that Fairware is open source. Do you see many shareware apps being open source out there? I think that the novelty of the concept justifies a new name.

That being said, as I mentioned at the end of this thread, I recently gone back to a more shareware-like presentation of the software, even though the app is fairware. To Joe Sixpack, the app behaves like your typical shareware, but if he's curious, he can learn about fairware and enable the "fairware mode". I think that's a pretty good compromise.

40hz:
It might be worth watching this presentation by Bryan Lunduke. Bryan is a FOSS/Linux advocate and a software developer (Radical Breeze Software) who addresses several of the issues surrounding Linux and offers some suggestions about how to fix them based on reality rather than wishful thinking or philosophizing. (Hint: we need to seriously start thinking about paying for things we use if we want them to continue being developed.)

The presentation is entitled: Why Linux Sucks (Less Than Before):

We all love Linux but, let's be honest, sometimes Linux just plain sucks. We'll take a look at the current crop of issues that drive us crazy, along with the recent changes (from new Desktop Environments to Software Stores) that are making Linux both suck less... and more. And, of course, we'll dive in to exactly what we can do to make Desktop Linux better over the next year. Presented by: Bryan Lunduke
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A lot of what's in this presentation touches on the much broader topic of independent software development so it's well worth a watch even if you have no interest in Linux.

Note: the presentation is best viewed in its entirety, but you can move forward to the 22 minute mark if you want to get to where software development takes center stage . Bryan makes a hard case for why the current open source development model fails when it comes to some important categories of software. He then suggests ways to start looking outside one box FOSS seems to have put itself into.

But enough from me. Listen to it from someone who knows because he does.

Check it out below:



WARNING: Some of what Bryan suggests will be heresy to many die-hard RMS types. As a longtime FOSS/GNU/Linux advocate myself, I can only say: So be it! ;D

mouser:
Great find.  as you say 24 minutes in and he's talking about the exact issues we have been talking about regarding developers needing funding -- not to get rich but to sustain development.

db90h:
.. del my post because it was mostly pointless .. but remember, at what point is 'sustaining the project' just 'needing more money' for personal bills... If you are already making more than a person working 40 hours a week a minimum wage, well then... Lastly, I am saddened to see that the concept behind this site, which both WORKED, and has GENERATED GREAT REVENUE, is now being relegated to the 'gray areas' as boundaries are pushed back and ethical tolerances lowered.

Lastly, don't forget to pay your taxes people ;). You take in money, you better be paying taxes. You'll find out that here in the USA us self-employed are taxed at a very high rate.

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