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Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

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Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#11

Post by aleph_minus_one »

labcomputer wrote: post #8

> Apple sells highly profitable devices and makes its apps free, but locks you into a proprietary ecosystem. Apple does sell a number of software products for high-ish prices: Final Cut Pro (as well as add-ons Motion and Compressor) and Logic Pro are paid-for software. But the another thing (which is fascinating to me, given the audience of HN and the tone of the comments here) is that part of the purpose of the ecos…

> But the another thing (which is fascinating to me, given the audience of HN and the tone of the comments here) is that part of the purpose of the ecosystem lock-in is to get users to pay indy devs for software.

The group of indie devs is not a homogeneous group. For example, there exist "hacker-type" indie devs who love to write software that subverts Apple's rules and/or adds functionalities that Apple does not like or restricts.

Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#13

Post by kepano »

Joker_vD wrote: post #6

It absolutely does, but that doesn't change the fact that the "fair price" of an additional copy of that software is still its marginal cost of production, which is zero. Which is why funding the R&D part of any product of such nature has always been so annoying. Today it seems we've settled on Patreon and the like for the individual-scale projects.

Some software has ongoing costs, such as support, servers, bug fixes, etc. But even in the hypothetical case that a piece of indie software has no ongoing costs, it seems fair that the creator should be at least somewhat rewarded for the value the software creates, regardless of how many copies are sold. Without this incentive we are stuck in a world where the only reason to create independent software is for the pure love of the craft, which is noble but only magnifies the advantages big tech has over indies.

Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#14

Post by kepano »

tonetegeatinst wrote: post #4

As a college student: bold of you to assume I have any money at all. Also while I do like the software VMware and proxmox has, and I would donate to developers if I had spare money, I don't so I just keep a list for future me, and try to convey my thanks in the meantime. On the other hand: broadcom can gargle my balls, I will not be paying them a single cent unless its my last option. They killed a good product, and…

Assuming you haven't exited to a barter economy you must surely be buying food? Unlike food, software can create time. Time = potential earnings. Consider a piece of software that costs less than a sandwich but the leverage it creates frees up some amount of time that earns you more than the cost of a sandwich.

Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#16

Post by labcomputer »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #11
labcomputer wrote: post #8

> Apple sells highly profitable devices and makes its apps free, but locks you into a proprietary ecosystem. Apple does sell a number of software products for high-ish prices: Final Cut Pro (as well as add-ons Motion and Compressor) and Logic Pro are paid-for software. But the another thing (which is fascinating to me, given the audience of HN and the tone of the comments here) is that part of the purpose of the ecos…

> But the another thing (which is fascinating to me, given the audience of HN and the tone of the comments here) is that part of the purpose of the ecosystem lock-in is to get users to pay indy devs for software. The group of indie devs is not a homogeneous group. For example, there exist "hacker-type" indie devs who love to write software that subverts Apple's rules and/or adds functionalities that Apple does not li…

Yes, and they are quite vocal and not afraid to shout down the other type nor to use the downvote button. Unfortunately I'm afraid their shenanigans will undermine the market and ecosystem of those who would like to make a living from writing quality software.

C'est la vie.

Part of the problem (I believe) is people who want to have their cake and eat it too. If that worked in real life, the government could simply pass a law that cake shall cost $0 and no-one would go hungry ever again. Apple's ecosystem imposes restrictions on developers, but also brings benefits. Sometimes in real life you have to take the bad with the good.

Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#17

Post by wildrhythms »

edverma2 wrote: post #3

Does anyone have good examples of software that meets this criteria? Or places where this type of software can be found? I love the idea here and would love to put it into practice but among the disadvantages that small makers suffer against large industry is easy discoverability for their products.

I paid for Pixelmator Pro and I like it a lot. On iPad I paid for Procreate. Both great apps for digital art (about 1/2 of my job). I wish I could have purchased these directly from their respective developers instead of an app store middleman getting a cut, though. Maybe someday.

Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#18

Post by labcomputer »

commandlinefan wrote: post #15

If only there were a risk-free, low-friciton _way_ to pay for it, I'd be happy to. The only way to pay for anything now is to risk sharing your credit card number with somebody who's trustworthiness and commitment to security are incredibly variable.

Like a store... for apps? An "App Store", if you will. ;)

Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#19

Post by BoorishBears »

commandlinefan wrote: post #15

If only there were a risk-free, low-friciton _way_ to pay for it, I'd be happy to. The only way to pay for anything now is to risk sharing your credit card number with somebody who's trustworthiness and commitment to security are incredibly variable.

> The only way to pay for anything now is to risk sharing your credit card number with somebody who's trustworthiness and commitment to security are incredibly variable.

There are a lot of people using merchants of record like Stripe and Paddle. So this isn't the biggest barrier these days

Re: Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash

#20

Post by squigz »

labcomputer wrote: post #8

> Apple sells highly profitable devices and makes its apps free, but locks you into a proprietary ecosystem. Apple does sell a number of software products for high-ish prices: Final Cut Pro (as well as add-ons Motion and Compressor) and Logic Pro are paid-for software. But the another thing (which is fascinating to me, given the audience of HN and the tone of the comments here) is that part of the purpose of the ecos…

I'm sorry, but if "supporting indie devs" means "having to pay for basic computer functionality like a calculator" I don't care about supporting them.
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