Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
Fairware: an interesting experiment in getting paid for Open Source
mwb1100:
I'm very confused by the direction this thread has taken. What does bundling unwanted software - I assume you're talking about toolbars or spyware and such - have to do with "Fairware" (or DC for that matter)?
40hz:
I'm very confused by the direction this thread has taken. What does bundling unwanted software - I assume you're talking about toolbars or spyware and such - have to do with "Fairware" (or DC for that matter)?
-mwb1100 (October 16, 2011, 12:51 PM)
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Thank you for asking that. I was beginning to wonder myself. :)
mouser:
I think the discussion just accidentally veered off course with regard to bundling, let's get back on topic..
Paul Keith:
I'm very confused by the direction this thread has taken. What does bundling unwanted software - I assume you're talking about toolbars or spyware and such - have to do with "Fairware" (or DC for that matter)?
-mwb1100 (October 16, 2011, 12:51 PM)
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I'm only speaking from my own interpretation but one possible perspective lies in the discourse of what db9oh calls as "falling into gray areas".
In this gray area, both bundling and fairware have some common black and white pattern in that instead of veering towards the kind hearted gifts that are donations, both models seek to nag the user due to a make shift desire to increase the profits of what morally should be an option and purely an option on the user side.
This especially applies to successful concepts on which db9oh associates DC as having been one of those with a successful working model that the attempt to inject talks of raising incentives for donations would thus then lead DC towards a slippery slope in which instead of donations, people are conned to give away money in the illusion that they are donating.
In this context, the discussion never really veered away much. It is still about fairware and it is still about fairware's difference and similarity to shareware that is being addressed.
hsoft:
In this gray area, both bundling and fairware have some common black and white pattern in that instead of veering towards the kind hearted gifts that are donations, both models seek to nag the user due to a make shift desire to increase the profits of what morally should be an option and purely an option on the user side.
-Paul Keith (October 17, 2011, 08:01 AM)
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I strongly disagree with your use of the words "profit" and "morally" there. Profit is what you get when revenues exceed expenses. Since what fairware tries to do is to break even with invested development hours, I don't think we can say that it's trying to increase profits. Increase revenues, yes. Increase profits, no.
As for morally, so you're suggesting that anything short of pure freeware is morally wrong? Shareware and all, morally wrong? That's quite a strong word to use. If we take your reasoning further, an artist asking for anything else than voluntary contributions for his concerts would also be morally wrong.
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