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Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

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Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#101

Post by antaviana »

Mz wrote: post #85
chubot wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very good list. I would add that most open source projects have many people working on them. So suppose you actually manage get paid despite all that -- how do you distribute money fairly? This is a huge problem can could actually slow the project down by leading to hurt feelings. Ironically, it's almost better for the group if nobody gets paid. Corporations have evolved all sorts of imperfect systems to solve this p…

it's almost better for the group if nobody gets paid. Relatedly: Studies show that paying people zero money and giving them respect gets better results than paying some pittance well below market rate. The study conclusion was to the effect of "Pay enough (market rates) or pay nothing. Don't pay some pittance because it is all your project can afford."

We used to have a freeware product that a few years after became a commercial product sold as a subscription.

When it was a freeware product, several people wanted to donate but we never accepted any donation, just to avoid the feeling of getting paid too low. Also I guess we were a bit equalitarian: we wanted that either nobody paid or that everybody paid.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#102

Post by Mz »

Theodores wrote: post #100
Mz wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's almost better for the group if nobody gets paid. Relatedly: Studies show that paying people zero money and giving them respect gets better results than paying some pittance well below market rate. The study conclusion was to the effect of "Pay enough (market rates) or pay nothing. Don't pay some pittance because it is all your project can afford."

Let's take a musical analogy - a 'group' group. With a four piece popular beat combo the royalties go four ways, it is all viable as a business. With a larger collective or an orchestra the money gets a bit tight - it goes forty rather than four ways. But, this is something my internal dialogue says whenever I hear a musician talking about money (and where there share is...) - 'But you are in it for the music, right?…

The problem comes in when people expect professional level music, but insist that musicians should all do it for love while also supporting themselves with a day job. Professional level anything takes significant time and effort. If it has value to others, people should not object to the person providing that value capturing some of it so they can keep a roof over their head.

Sometimes, the answers aren't as simple and easy as we wish they were.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#104

Post by iamwil »

orthecreedence wrote: post #79
iamwil wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just start charging. You'll want to know earlier rather than later which one it is. Life is short. If it turns out this is not the thing you should be working on, knowing which one it is will free your mind up to do something else you should be doing.

Great advice. It's funny because I already know this, it's logical and the decision makes sense in every way, but I still have trouble doing it. I've got a nice chunk of nights/weekends in July, maybe I'll make the final push then.

Yeah, I know the feeling. It's usually some mental block, or erroneous belief you have that's held by those in your circle, or something you identify with. Sometimes it's a fear. But either way, it's usually a bug in the way you're seeing the world.

Once you can identify the bug, it'll be easier to know what's making you hesitate. What's the basic belief you have about money and business that's held in your social circle, or attached to your identity?

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#106

Post by hodgesrm »

jashmenn wrote: post #31

Because monetizing your open-source project means you take on a second job. Here are your choices: * Turn your OSS project into a company (Docker). The pro is that you can capture a lot of the value, the con is that you're splitting your project into CE/EE and also now you're a CEO * Give the software away for free and charge for the hosting (Gitlab). Pro here is that you get recurring revenue, but the con is that no…

There's a simpler answer: it's hard to make money on open source software. Relatively few projects can generate additional services sufficient to pay even a single author's salary.

Anyway I think the original question kind of misses the point of open source. The big driver for the growth of open source is that it enables users license-free access to large quantities of software. The folks that have made the most money off open source are companies like Facebook/Google that run their business on open source or use it to drive adoption of products they can monetize in other ways.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#107

Post by eeZah7Ux »

exelius wrote: post #53
indigochill wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another reason some companies publish open source code is to recruit contributors. Contributors already know what they're doing and are clearly passionate enough about the product to spend time on it for free, so they may be a natural hire when a position opens.

I think you're vastly overstating it. The main reason most companies open source stuff is because they had to build something for some reason or another, the thing works, but they don't want to maintain it because it's plumbing and it's not mission-critical. Sometimes it's easier to throw the thing on GitHub (where others might find it and at least use it) than throw it in your company's internal repository (where no…

Citation needed!

Most of the time it's much easier to leave stuff in internal repos than doing the effort to review and approve stuff for publishing.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#108

Post by chubot »

Theodores wrote: post #100
Mz wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's almost better for the group if nobody gets paid. Relatedly: Studies show that paying people zero money and giving them respect gets better results than paying some pittance well below market rate. The study conclusion was to the effect of "Pay enough (market rates) or pay nothing. Don't pay some pittance because it is all your project can afford."

Let's take a musical analogy - a 'group' group. With a four piece popular beat combo the royalties go four ways, it is all viable as a business. With a larger collective or an orchestra the money gets a bit tight - it goes forty rather than four ways. But, this is something my internal dialogue says whenever I hear a musician talking about money (and where there share is...) - 'But you are in it for the music, right?…

Are you actually arguing that musicians should be into it only for the music and not get paid? If so I completely disagree and that's not my point at all. Musicians absolutely should be paid.

Software authors should also be paid. I'm just pointing out that there are some practical problems with it in the open source setting.

My ideal would be that essentially all software is open source, but everyone would also get paid. But I realize there are many reasons why we don't have that situation today.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#109

Post by mperham »

jashmenn wrote: post #31

Because monetizing your open-source project means you take on a second job. Here are your choices: * Turn your OSS project into a company (Docker). The pro is that you can capture a lot of the value, the con is that you're splitting your project into CE/EE and also now you're a CEO * Give the software away for free and charge for the hosting (Gitlab). Pro here is that you get recurring revenue, but the con is that no…

If you are going to build and maintain a project, you are already taking on a second job. The difference is whether you make $0 or >$0.

You should not monetize if the problem your OSS is solving is not a problem you care about. You have to be in it for the long term as it always takes years of work to succeed.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#110

Post by Arnavion »

Gracana wrote: post #77
mobitar wrote: post #56

Because monetizing any business is really really hard. I work on Standard Notes ( https://standardnotes.org ), which is an encrypted notes app (think of it as an encrypted Evernote alternative). It's fully open source, and I'm monetizing it through paid upgrades. While the progress is promising enough for me to continue working on it full time, nothing could have prepared me for how difficult this was going to be. I…

Just a heads-up, standardnotes.org is very broken (big area of overlapping text) in IE11.

It's because IE11 doesn't support flexbox.
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