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Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

blog.elementary.io

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Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#111

Post by pjmlp »

couchand wrote: post #102
pjmlp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why after my open source phase as university student back in the mid-90's, I ended up doing mostly commercial software. Unless one hits jackpot a la RedHat, or is doing consulting/teaching/web paywalls, open source seldom pays bills.

This is a false dichotomy. Some of the best open source work has been done by folks who do pull in a salary from a commercial venture. A few of those are designated open-source positions, but the vast majority are just people who contribute on the side. And I hope you can appreciate how demeaning it is to call your time contributing to open source a "phase".

What I call a phase was the idea that I would be able to live just from open source no matter which type of business area.

I still work with open source tools and do contribute occasionally with bug reports, bug fixes, advocacy and money.

Just don't believe any longer that all types of business are possible with open source. Many just don't go along with it, at least for those that want to their their bills.

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#112

Post by simula67 »

orik wrote: post #22

Here's a mirror of the original version of this blog post. I'd like point out a couple of quotes. https://web.archive.org/web/20150211134734/http://blog.eleme... >We want users to understand that they’re pretty much cheating the system when they choose not to pay for software. Elementary's self-important attitude has and continues to completely baffle me. People joke about ElementaryOS being just Ubuntu + Pantheon Sh…

> Elementry's Dev team doesn't pay for Ubuntu, they don't pay for the Kernel or GNU Tools,

Neither Canonical, the kernel developers nor FSF demands you pay them money for Ubuntu, Linux or GNU Tools. Nor do they oppose making money from software. Even their own software.

> and yet they made the argument that the end user is 'cheating the system' when they download a prebuilt iso of a collection of free software for free.

If they want to be paid money for free ( as in freedom ) software they have the right to demand it. I see no moral problem with this. They may be delusional, but not immoral.

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#113

Post by pjmlp »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #110
pjmlp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why after my open source phase as university student back in the mid-90's, I ended up doing mostly commercial software. Unless one hits jackpot a la RedHat, or is doing consulting/teaching/web paywalls, open source seldom pays bills.

Being a Chef seldom pays bills too, but it doesn't mean you should stop so you can get a job at McDonalds. (And once you get that McDonalds job, it doesn't mean you have to stop cooking good food).

Actually it does, as I only equate Chefs with restaurants that tend to be on cuisine magazines.

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#114

Post by zxcvcxz »

sudioStudio64 wrote: post #90

For all of the people asking about contributions to the OS...its a fact that most people who work on Linux aren't volunteers anymore. Most kernel contributors are paid to work on the kernel. The same goes for a lot of the work that is done on distributions...even the free ones. These guys are doing some great work and it would really be a shame if it didn't continue. They are attempting to put together the kind of po…

>Most kernel contributors are paid to work on the kernel.

Not by the Linux Foundation or Linux users. They're paid by third parties.

It's like MS pays it's employees to work on Linux but MS is still doing it for free.

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#115

Post by ekianjo »

krat0sprakhar wrote: post #104
ekianjo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Daniel recently quit hos job to work full time on Elementary Fine, that's his decision, but he does not need to make it others' fault to pursue his lifestyle.

That's unnecessarily harsh. On one hand HN has articles of people jumping off the 9-to-5 rut to pursue something they are passionate about full-time while on the other we have people accusing Daniel of the same choice.

> That's unnecessarily harsh

Because saying that people who use FOSS software without paying are "cheating the system" is not harsh? You know, you often get the reaction that you deserve.

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#116

Post by zxcvcxz »

pjmlp wrote: post #113
zxcvcxz wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a Chef seldom pays bills too, but it doesn't mean you should stop so you can get a job at McDonalds. (And once you get that McDonalds job, it doesn't mean you have to stop cooking good food).

Actually it does, as I only equate Chefs with restaurants that tend to be on cuisine magazines.

> Actually it does, as I only equate Chefs with restaurants that tend to be on cuisine magazines.

But sadly this isn't true in the real world. When I think of a Chef I think of a great cook, someone who doesn't need someone else to tell them how to mix ingredients. It's a disservice to the chef to go and waste their time at McDonalds, but it's pretty rare you become successful a la Gordon Ramsey or something.

It's not a very smart decision to put all that time and effort into learning to be a master chef just to throw it away at some corporate place where no one appreciates you.

But hey if you need the money and your food isn't all that great anyway...

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#117

Post by zxcvcxz »

pjmlp wrote: post #69
colechristensen wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider also, quite importantly, that a large volume of the work done on any Linux-based operating system is and has been done entirely without money changing hands.

Only when one forgets that most of those developers: - were payed to work on GNU/Linux by their employers - had a different source of income - were students with their parents paying for their bills - were building a portfolio for a job change So money did change hands, even if indirectly.

You're being pedantic. The users point is that neither the Linux foundation, Linux Users, or Linus Torvalds pays people to contribute to the kernel.

While one company may pay its employees to write code for the Linux kernel, that company is still writing the code and contributing it to Linux for free.

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#118

Post by narrowrail »

njloof wrote: post #107
markild wrote: post #7

Interesting read. Maybe I've been living under a rock, but this is the first I've heard about elementary. Though, not directly related to their payment model, I wish they would more clearly state that they're a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. I couldn't "quickly" find any info on it anywhere on their site, so I had to find out from Wikipedia. I guess this has something to do with their target audience, and the wa…

It's also unclear from their homepage why I would want yet another OS/UI combo. What are the advantages? Does it run any apps? I'm definitely not paying $10 sight unseen. Maybe a 30-day trial would be a better model before asking for payment.

Why would they need to offer a trial? Just type in 0$ and download or just download the torrent directly (they default to a torrent anyway, at least when choosing 0$).

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#119

Post by pjmlp »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #117
pjmlp wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only when one forgets that most of those developers: - were payed to work on GNU/Linux by their employers - had a different source of income - were students with their parents paying for their bills - were building a portfolio for a job change So money did change hands, even if indirectly.

You're being pedantic. The users point is that neither the Linux foundation, Linux Users, or Linus Torvalds pays people to contribute to the kernel. While one company may pay its employees to write code for the Linux kernel, that company is still writing the code and contributing it to Linux for free.

The employees salary is not free, or are you suggesting those employees don't enter the hours into the companies accounting system?

Re: Payments – Why we make you type "$0"

#120

Post by pjmlp »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #116
pjmlp wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it does, as I only equate Chefs with restaurants that tend to be on cuisine magazines.

> Actually it does, as I only equate Chefs with restaurants that tend to be on cuisine magazines. But sadly this isn't true in the real world. When I think of a Chef I think of a great cook, someone who doesn't need someone else to tell them how to mix ingredients. It's a disservice to the chef to go and waste their time at McDonalds, but it's pretty rare you become successful a la Gordon Ramsey or something. It's no…

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