How I earn a living selling my open-source web-based invoicing application

Post by nate_meurer » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

gwd wrote: post #64

nvr219 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To paraphrase Cunningham's Law: Posting the wrong answer is the best way to get the right answer.

I read an article recently which advised purposely saying something which you knew to be incorrect in order to kickstart a conversation with someone. "What do you do?" "Software development." "What kind of software?" [back and forth, question-and-short-answer at a time] "What do you do?" "Software development." "Oh, so you like write websites and stuff?" "No, actually, [long enthusiastic explanation of their job]"

Post by bigbob2 » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 5:51 AM UTC

woah wrote: post #181

protomyth wrote: post #6

In 2021 I recently launched my newest product: It's called open3ABox and it's a raspberry pi with open3A pre-installed which I deliver to my customers who have not the technical skills for their own server but don't want a cloud version either. It's fully remote managed and monitored by me This would be an interesting model for quite a few services. It reminds me of Ubiquity's cloud key. I wish some government grant…

What’s the point of having a server that is “non cloud” but remotely managed? Sounds like it is a cloud server, hosted in a substandard colo

Post by system2 » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 6:06 AM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #101

ThinkBeat wrote: post #61

No. You sell additional premium extension to provide needed left out of the open-source offering. You sell cloud hosting and on prem hosting. There is nothing at all wrong with that. That you have built a business where you make a living from software you wrote is awesome. I wish I could.

> You sell additional premium extension ...which are open source.

Post by nemiah » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 6:08 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #174

scottlamb wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a given that you should have backups of your business data, no matter if you're using a hosted installation or a local one. With backups, if the hosted provider pulls the plug, you don't lose _everything_. You may be scrambling to set up the replacement but you have your data, and in this case you'd also have the source code, so you'll survive. And keep in mind that "Raspberry Pi fails" is a more common scenario…

Another commenter mentions the setup involves a Pi with an SSD and two USB sticks. It might be configured so you're required to switch usb sticks for consecutive backups, so you'd always have at least your second most recent backup completely offline - or even have the system ensure there's only a backup usb stick instead while the backup is running (and either unmount it of nag you to take it out when the backup is…

Post by nemiah » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 6:09 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #173

bityard wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of cases where I want to own a thing, but make someone else responsible for managing it. And if they fail or go away, I want to know that I can hire someone else to manage it instead. If the app is hosted entirely in the cloud, _everything_ is gone if the provider pulls the plug suddenly. If the app is hosted on a device that I own and the provider goes away, it will probably still keep working for a…

> Worst case, I still at least have the option of hiring someone to crack it open and extract the data to import someone else. Even that worst "single person provider got hit by a bus" case is already somewhat mitigated here - since the software is open source. I'm guessing she's likely set this up so anyone with physical access and appropriate credentials (which the client has by default) and linux experience, could…