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Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#111

Post by crankylinuxuser »

jabl wrote: post #86
rusk wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.. and knowing at the end of it that we paid 3x the market price to get it from our 'Preferred Supplier’ Very clear what’s going on there once you get to the end. Somebody’s got themselves a nice cash cow sewn up.

Doesn't need to be a conspiracy, where somebody is getting rich at the company's expense. At work we have something similar, where every few years the IT department tenders the 'preferred supplier' for general IT stuff. The logic is basically that by promising the vendors exclusivity, they will bid lower. So yes, sometimes that means we'll pay 3x for a keyboard compared to the price we'd pay at the local discount com…

What's its own level of horrible is Amazon.

If you have a business account, everything gets bundled into that account. Sure, if your org is 110 people big, keeping track is pretty easy. My last job was with a state university. They see thousands of purchases a day, and Amazon bins them onto 1 credit card, and in 1 account. For all 8 campuses and over 50k people.

So the preferred vendor means also integrating with your financial system. So budgeting is easier. But Amazon makes this so damned hard. Even being able to tag purchases would help. But I'm sure ol Besos figured out that makes him lose a dollar.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#112

Post by anoncake »

jolmg wrote: post #105
anoncake wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What deters people from becoming Patreon creators is not being supported. I certainly would never voluntarily support someone if I for all I know they could already be grossly overpaid for what they do. If supporting someone with X€ is any kind of "vote", it's a vote that they should get X€ more than they currently get for their work. It may be hard to make an educated decision about that, but it's impossible without…

> If supporting someone with X€ is any kind of "vote", it's a vote that they should get X€ more than they currently get for their work. No, think of each unit of currency as equaling 1 vote. It's a vote that, between the various things that they could be doing, they should continue doing what they're currently doing. For example, in a programmer's case, he could be employed by a company which will give $X votes. He c…

Votes and currency work completely differently. In an election, you have one vote. You can use it to support someone or not. If you don't vote, you don't get to keep your vote and use it for a different election. Equating votes and money just does not work.

If:

- I believe that someone's work is worth 50,000€

- They currently get 50,000€ from Patreon

- Because their earnings are secret I give them another 1000€

- Because of my support, they refuse an offer for 50,500€

then the resource allocation system failed. The creator is now doing work worth 50,000€ even though they could be doing work worth 50,500€.

(For the sake of argument, I'm making some assumptions that are clearly wrong but required for markets to make sense as allocation mechanisms in the first place)

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#113

Post by [deleted] »

davidgh wrote: post #110

I’ve been attached to the “shareware” industry since the 90’s, providing platforms to software developers to sell their products. It’s given me an angle of the industry that few get, namely, I’ve seem the sales number for literally thousands of different companies in the industry. The first thing I would say is that shareware (in the classic definition) is not really a thing anymore, but “try before you buy” software…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#115

Post by ezekg »

Overall, I think you're putting the cart before the horse. You think you have a valuable product, but it doesn't sound like you've even validated that thought yet. I would do that first before getting caught up in these next steps.

> let anyone who feels it is worth pay for it

You should only do that if you want this to be a side project forever. If you want growth, charge people money. Most people aren't just going to donate money to you if they don't have to. Don't be shy about charging. People who find value in your software will pay you for a license to use it, especially businesses. If they don't find enough value to want to pay, then you don't have a good product yet and should talk to your users to determine value adds.

> To go for a startup selling licenced copies, I would need an investor

I don't see how you came to this conclusion. You can very easily license your software without investors, and charge customers per machine like you mentioned. I even built a business around that fact, which may also be able to help you start licensing your software quickly [0].

[0]: https://keygen.sh

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#116

Post by jakobegger »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #111
jabl wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't need to be a conspiracy, where somebody is getting rich at the company's expense. At work we have something similar, where every few years the IT department tenders the 'preferred supplier' for general IT stuff. The logic is basically that by promising the vendors exclusivity, they will bid lower. So yes, sometimes that means we'll pay 3x for a keyboard compared to the price we'd pay at the local discount com…

What's its own level of horrible is Amazon. If you have a business account, everything gets bundled into that account. Sure, if your org is 110 people big, keeping track is pretty easy. My last job was with a state university. They see thousands of purchases a day, and Amazon bins them onto 1 credit card, and in 1 account. For all 8 campuses and over 50k people. So the preferred vendor means also integrating with you…

With Amazon in Europe it's especially bad because if you accidentally buy something from an FBA vendor, you won't get a proper VAT invoice. And this makes accounting a pain in the ass.

Every other online store sends you a proper invoice. But FBA vendors will send you sketchy invoices that make it clear they aren't paying their taxes. Which is bad, because that means as a business customer you're on the hook....

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#118

Post by tomjen3 »

alexgmcm wrote: post #51
vbezhenar wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is using a crack easier than dealing with bureaucracy?

Using a crack has both legal and security implications for the company and therefore at least in my place of work can result in serious consequences for the employee including termination of employment. So I'd imagine most people wouldn't risk it.

Sure, but you have to multiply that with the (perceived) probability of it being an issue with the expected benefit. That is probably a calculation that often comes out as "get it, dammit".

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#119

Post by pengo »

eigenvector wrote: post #47
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #18

I've built a small tool that I distributed as "free for personal use, contact me for a commercial license", without technical enforcement, not even a nag screen. I made one (1) sale, despite receiving e-mails from several people thanking me that they're happily using it at work, and that sale was to a company who wanted customization, and only ended up actually paying the invoice when they asked for another round of…

Companies have successfully convinced themselves that anything software is some form of black magic that can only be procured by the IT department and through a small army of Business Development Managers. In my job I have fairly broad discretion to purchase things, generally up to $100,000 I need only write a one-paragraph justification of what I'm doing as long as I'm working within an approved budget. Except 'IT'.…

I worked for a company in the 1990s which had previously had a very bad experience purchasing custom software, and as a consequence had formally restricted the delegation of authority to business unit leaders to specifically exclude ANY software purchases. As a consequence, if one of my team needed a Microsoft Word license, it had to go all the way to the Board of Directors - and it only got there if the CEO believed it was important.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#120

Post by pengo »

jchw wrote: post #6
bhengaij wrote: post #2

Honestly- just use UWP and sell on windows store. Hacker news is believe it or not, a very niche space with very few employees of big enterprises except the popular ones. You wont get to hear from the regular it worker here

Why UWP? Who buys from Windows Store? Not my parents. They started computers with buying software in boxes, but in the modern age almost all of their digital purchases are done on smartphones. Neither of them have any idea what Windows Store is. One of them uses Steam for games. Not most power users I know, most of which bawk at UWP apps and the concept of a walled garden store on their desktop computer. Many power u…

Buying from Windows Store requires me to have a Microsoft account, so I won't do it. I'm happy to pay for software, and I regularly do so, but directly from the vendor.
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