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Write some software, give it away for free

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Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#181

Post by seba_dos1 »

DANmode wrote: post #177
seba_dos1 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just one way to do it. Even if you let them send you PRs or whatever, you can still act on them or not depending on how they behave, your available resources, health, mood or just whim. You don't owe anyone anything and "creating a community around a project" is not a goal you have to be striving for regardless of whether you take contributions or provide some user support or not.

> depending on how they behave So, reviewing them. Which takes time/focus.

So don't do it when you don't want to.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#182

Post by [deleted] »

tconbeer wrote: post #127
komali2 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sympathetic to FOSS developers but struggle to understand this, maybe because it hasn't happened to me. But, why is this a mental drain? Is there not a simple solution? Reply with the license, "comes with no warranty," "you're free to fork," close issue and move on? I suppose in aggregate it could be draining.

The assholes outnumber the good ones, and it feels like all of humanity is transactional and extractive. At first all engagement is exciting and validating. You work nights and weekends to please people you’ve never met, sure that one good turn deserves another. Then you get your first jerk, then your second, then your third, while your father is in the hospital. You feel pressure to ship a feature you never wanted.…

[deleted]

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#183

Post by tamthai »

I also running an open source software I developed for free. It's one of my hobby so it helps too. Issues or suggestions are no problems, I can choose what I want to fix or implement.

A free software can have good things like there could be a lot of users which is good learning experience on how to deal with it. If you are already experienced, then it would not be as much valuable.

There is also argument that paid software is better. I can't say that it wrong. With less people using it, and the developer has fund to run the service on good machine does make a difference.

I don't think there a right answer to free or paid. Just do it the way that align with your goal.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#185

Post by ianhxu »

This is a wonderful ideal. Like some ancient scientists and philosophers, they don't have many worries about money and can pursue pure passion. This also seems like a key source of social progress -- diverse purposes and paths of exploration.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#186

Post by phyzix5761 »

This kind of mentality is easy to have when you make 6 figures and don't have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. For the majority of the world, which makes a median of $10 USD per day, monetization is the only way they can do things they enjoy. There's no "hobbies" for most of humanity if its detached from survival.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#187

Post by coolThingsFirst »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #186

This kind of mentality is easy to have when you make 6 figures and don't have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. For the majority of the world, which makes a median of $10 USD per day, monetization is the only way they can do things they enjoy. There's no "hobbies" for most of humanity if its detached from survival.

This is simply not true. Majority of humanity isn’t starving and yes they have hobbies. Even better social life than westerners who believe they live in a utopia.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#188

Post by coolThingsFirst »

morpheos137 wrote: post #128

i have never understood this idea applying to all sofware. sure general research level software should be free and open source. business logic or specific use cases should not. The law is free and open source. Lawyers will not draft you a contract for free. Medicine is free and open source. A doctor will not set your arm for free. FOSS is kind of the worst of both worlds. Unfunded or corporately funded amateurs give…

Yes they will. There are doctors working pro-bono. The fact that you have accepted that you owe this world nothing is your own narrow worldview that you have to contend with just don’t pretend it’s a global fact.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#189

Post by FailMore »

I've built side projects for years. My most recent one (also Markdown related [1]) is my first open source one and I've found it to be the most rewarding experience by far. So far I have 54 stars on GitHub and have had people emailing me mainly to thank me for the service, but some to ask for feature requests. Although I haven't had many ask for features / fixes, I find the "pushy-ness" of my users very useful as it helps me know what to implement next. This is doubly true as the cost of implementing is economically and cognitively lower than it was before AI was around. I'm pretty happy to build the features my users want, and it's great to see that some proportion of people exposed to the tool use it on a weekly/daily basis [2].

[1] https://sdocs.dev, discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633

[2] https://sdocs.dev/analytics

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#190

Post by Hendrikto »

faangguyindia wrote: post #75
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.

As someone who once had a popular open-source project. Opensource is just harder because you've to write code for . When I am working with a small team, I do not care if my commits are ugly or repetitive. Despite what people here say, all these things have very little to do with the reliability of actual code. Same software i offer for free will take 2-5x more time if i did it opensource way.

> When I am working with a small team, I do not care if my commits are ugly or repetitive

Your team cares though. Probably including yourself later. Maintaining proper commit history is always worth it.

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