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Write some software, give it away for free

nonogra.ph

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Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#101

Post by [deleted] »

latexr wrote: post #55
SerCe wrote: post #37

Or don't. I've done both, published OSS projects and sold some software. The level of entitlement in some comments I received on the OSS side was pretty crazy at times. While with the paid software, all of the interactions I had were so much more constructive. YMMV, but willingness to pay is a great filter.

I’ve also done both, and I found both kinds of users in both situations. There have been cases on the commercial front where I just felt like giving customers their money back, even after years of having used the software, and told them to not come back. There’s a lot of entitlement and craziness from paying users too, and those are harder to ignore. With open-source it’s much simpler to drive a hard line. My “favour…

[deleted]

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#102

Post by keyle »

nohell wrote: post #89
keyle wrote: post #73

I love the attitude, but this particular service in 2026 is a little risky. A whole range of content can be posted that can make you liable that you want it or not... from product keys, to internal documents, ... I'll just say this, I love the spirit but this is ballsy. It's just going to be used as another user-paste space.

Pretty sure product keys are like a 1 on the scale of 0-to-10. It's mirrored to other servers running the software, plus there's entire separate instances beyond my control, and Tor-only instances. If one goes down, it will pop up somewhere else.

> 1 on the scale of 0-to-10.

I didn't mean in terms of 'seriousness' I meant in terms of liability.

Having terms saying "do what you want, not my problem" isn't a good strategy.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#103

Post by rvz »

This is the reason why developers here are upset about AI. You can't have it both ways and 'open source' is now weaponized against them.

AI will consume OSS software and anyone will be able to clone your closed-source app for free and open source it for 'the community' to avoid paying $1 to maintain it.

One thing that is not free is hosting.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#104

Post by nohell »

johnj-hn wrote: post #84

I'm doing exactly this. I started out only intending to create something for myself. As it got better, I thought that other people might want to use it. I briefly considered trying to sell it, and pretty quickly realized that I didn't want to ruin something I was having fun with by turning it into a business. Now, instead of worrying about sales, I get to feel good about giving something back to the FOSS community th…

that looks useful, will try it out!

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#105

Post by nohell »

keyle wrote: post #102
nohell wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure product keys are like a 1 on the scale of 0-to-10. It's mirrored to other servers running the software, plus there's entire separate instances beyond my control, and Tor-only instances. If one goes down, it will pop up somewhere else.

> 1 on the scale of 0-to-10. I didn't mean in terms of 'seriousness' I meant in terms of liability. Having terms saying "do what you want, not my problem" isn't a good strategy.

Well then I better up my OPSEC

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#107

Post by jeffparsons »

SerCe wrote: post #37

Or don't. I've done both, published OSS projects and sold some software. The level of entitlement in some comments I received on the OSS side was pretty crazy at times. While with the paid software, all of the interactions I had were so much more constructive. YMMV, but willingness to pay is a great filter.

I've regularly heard something similar said of consulting work, too. Many people new to the game worry about charging too much, because if a client is paying more then surely the pressure will be higher. Instead they end up experiencing the opposite: charging a higher rate tends to get them a better kind of client.

I'm not sure what the exact lesson is here. Something about stingy people not being nice to work with, perhaps?

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#108

Post by nohell »

komali2 wrote: post #91

I've been doing this at my co-op, just as a kind of, I don't know, break from capitalism or something? Or maybe to practice getting users before finding a monetizable project? Most are rinky dink derp projects to let co-op members play around with whatever stack, or to give potential members a project they can get a commit on (requirement to join), but some I think are kinda useful. Some I use every day, like the cal…

neat!

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#109

Post by darkstarsys »

I'm mostly retired from a lifetime as a graphics programmer and CTO, and now I'm working through my lifetime of fun backlog projects. https://pcons.org, https://deep-timeline.org, https://pelorus-nav.com, https://packzen.org, https://github.com/garyo/sea-surface-temp-viz, https://globe-viz.oberbrunner.com/ and lots more. All open source and free.

Sure, make money from software. I did. But when you have enough and it's time to give back, open source it.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#110

Post by nl »

nohell wrote: post #4
kw3b wrote: post #3

I started out in the BBS and demoscene of the 90s. The glory days of computing in my opinion, because of the technical innovation (people were making magic with 7mhz processors) and how the community arranged itself. e.g, some ANSI artists in the artpack scene went on to become legit artists, but nobody was sitting around grinding ANSIs to make millions or raise capital. I think about that era in my own open source w…

I wasn't alive in the 90s, and barely was in the 00s. I look at others writings about those early days, and compare it to today, then get a weird feeling of wanting to experience the "good ol' days" before python scripts made in 10 minutes by an AI and sold to investors as "vendor lock-in" was the thing to strive for.

I was there.

It's mostly rose tinted glasses.

There were some amazing feats. But it was slow and frustrating. Like you wouldn't believe how long things took.

In the 90s most technical documentation was in actual physical books. If you wanted to learn something you had to order and buy the book (and Amazon wasn't a thing everywhere!), and it would take weeks or months to arrive. Or you did inter-library loans (which were amazing but also took weeks).

Or you relied on magazines which had a publication cycle. Writing actual physical letters about a program that was written out in the magazine was a thing.

When I got internet access in the mid-90s I remember emailing someone to ask about mirrors of their documentation project because I didn't want to use up their bandwidth.

I'd never ever want to go back. Bring on the future!

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