GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
1–10 of 251 posts
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#2I've spent thousands of dollars on hosting/services around open source or non for profit work I've did in the last 15 years.
buy-me-a-coffee™
Jokes aside, I've never minded paying for things, and never could be bothered doing the open source / paid version model that the author spoke of.
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#3Making a living on FOSS is hard, as you discovered.
I hope you succeed, of course. But since I have no good idea what your app is, except "a browser for developers" from the blog text, there is really no chance that I would ever search for this app, hear about it thru word of mouth, or eanything really that would make me end up testing your app.
Here's some other ways you could have tried to approach the situation:
- stop providing compiles, while selling access to the compiles on patreon or something. this way you can keep engagement from other developers and stay FOSS.
- offer commercial services around your app
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#4Note: title should also include (2020).
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#5> 7 to 10 thousand people were using the app every month.
Given that, their income seems about right. Only a tiny fraction of (potential) users are typically willing to pay anything.
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#6When talking about GitHub stars and money, it's important to understand the other side of the equation.
A useful free and open source project garners GitHub stars and general recognition because it is useful, but also because it is free. The stars are the social compensation in this case. The free nature of the software is essential to that relationship.
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#7[deleted]
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#8And then on the other extreme you have something like substack in, which writing political rants easily earns $50-100k/year in recurring donations even if you are not that famous. It's hard to get people to donate open source projects.
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#9As moderator of Reddit, now I question myself why I am doing it for free.
Re: GitHub stars won't pay your rent (2020)
#10[deleted]