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Why don't you pay for software?
wraith808:
I'm not saying there should be no reward for the effort, i'm saying giving the reward shouldn't be ENFORCED upon the user.
-Gothi[c] (May 26, 2007, 02:23 PM)
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But that's just it. It's not forced on you. Just as the developer chooses to spend his time making software for whatever rationale, then chooses to price it at what he thinks the price should be, the user has a choice of paying what the developer chooses to charge, or not use the software.
I made a nice little piece of software one time, just for me, but decided to make it available to the public. I spent the money on bandwidth for them to download it (this was before these freeware sites became prevalent) and didn't put any controls on the software. All I asked was that people who downloaded the software send me a short e-mail saying what they liked or didn't like about it... or even just their location if they wanted to. I just wanted to get some feedback and metrics.
Do you know how many e-mails I received over 6 years of hosting it? 3. Believe me, that was a *lot* less than the number of downloads. It's not just naive to depend upon the good will of users to support you in what you work at for a living, it's also IMO fiscally irresponsible, for most people, given a choice, will *not* donate. And that's just the plain facts.
app103:
The question was "Why don't you pay for software?"
That question in and of itself doesn't imply that one uses pirated software.
I interpreted that question to mean "Why would you use freeware? And why would you choose not to support the software you use?"
I love small single purpose tools. I don't like opening a swiss army knife and hunting for just the tool I need, or worse yet, having to have multiple swiss army knives with duplication of tools just to make sure I have everything I need.
Most of these single purpose tools that I use are freeware. In the cases where there is an option to choose either a freeware application or a payware application for the same purpose, I will usually go for the freeware one as long as it does its job well and it's stable.
I do try to support the software I love, but I can't always afford to do that. :(
This question, to me, would be very similar to asking "Why do you eat at home instead of a restaurant?" or "Why do you shop in discount stores instead of the big department stores?" "Why would you buy used items instead of new?" "Why do you keep using something old and outdated instead of replacing it with new?" or "Why would you continue to use the older version of a program rather than paying again and upgrading it?"
And I guess the real answer to all those questions would have to be this:
I am frugal, sometimes to the point where it can be considered a fault....or an art form. :-[
Don't misunderstand. I am not stingy, not by far. I am quite generous when I have something I can be generous with.
If I could pay for software with pizza, I think there would be a lot more really fat programmers in this world. ;D
I could bake cookies for the developers and mail them, but it would make more sense to me to send them the money I would have spent on postage by paypal and just skip the baking. And most of the time I can't even afford the postage.
I can afford email, though...and encouraging words, and I know how much they are worth. Their value is more than the average person thinks. ;)
Carol Haynes:
I'm not saying there should be no reward for the effort, i'm saying giving the reward shouldn't be ENFORCED upon the user.
Yes,- this sounds naive and counts on the goodwill of people, but if you want people to be nicer in the world, you might as wel BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE. -Gothi[c] (May 26, 2007, 02:23 PM)
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I am not sure whether Gothi[c] is serious or just trolling for response.
If you are serious does this philosophy apply to all intellectual pursuits? If not then why not? If it does then how does any business model work when nobody can earn a living at anything?
Example: A designer designs a car, another designer designs a production line to produce it, engineers design the machine to run the production line and the processing plant to produce the raw materials, a mining engineer designs a method for extracting ore to supply the production process. All of these people are producing intellectual ideas just a programmers do - should none of these people get paid for their work - or is it all done for love and they work in MacDonalds to support their 'hobby'?
Just because software is an intangible product that you can't hold in your hand doesn't mean it requires any less work than the factory worker who bolts the parts together to build a car. Would you suggest that a factory worker should work for love of it? Why should people who work in MacDonalds be paid? They don't produce anything tangible either!
Curt:
... All I asked was that people who downloaded the software send me a short e-mail saying what they liked or didn't like about it... or even just their location if they wanted to. I just wanted to get some feedback and metrics. -wraith808 (May 26, 2007, 04:33 PM)
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I can afford email, though...and encouraging words, and I know how much they are worth. Their value is more than the average person thinks. ;) -app103 (May 26, 2007, 04:40 PM)
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Thanks for telling this! I would often look at that feedback button and think Why should I take their time telling what they already know? / or whatever reason kept me from responding.
Now I will write every small-app's author :D
Gothi[c]:
If you are serious does this philosophy apply to all intellectual pursuits?
-Carol Haynes (May 26, 2007, 06:57 PM)
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yes
If it does then how does any business model work when nobody can earn a living at anything?
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Noone should 'earn a living'. Living is our birth right, it doesn't need to be earned. The way the world works now, the system is completely defunctional and wrong. I'm not saying anyone has come up with a better one yet (someone may or may not have), but that doesn't make it less wrong. Now we just have legalized slavery. If you don't work in whatever field that brings in money, you can't survive.
Example: A designer designs a car, another designer designs a production line to produce it, engineers design the machine to run the production line and the processing plant to produce the raw materials, a mining engineer designs a method for extracting ore to supply the production process. All of these people are producing intellectual ideas just a programmers do - should none of these people get paid for their work - or is it all done for love and they work in MacDonalds to support their 'hobby'?
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The designer of the car's production should optionally donate to the designer if he can, the miners should donate to the mining engineer if they can for making their job easyer, etc,... "if they can" being the keyphrase.
Would you suggest that a factory worker should work for love of it?
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Ideally, yes. He shouldn't be forced to do so otherwise. For money or no money.
But this is completely off topic, I just wanted to throw in my :two: because the crowd was weighing in only one direction, and there are plenty of other viewpoints out there, mine is just one of them. And it's probably not perfect, I'm no where near claiming to have all the answers, but I do have a sense of right and wrong. And people not being able to get goods because they don't have the money is wrong, and people having to work to be able to live is wrong. Money is probably just wrong all together, since it's only led to greed, wars, suffering, and destruction.
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