Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Poll about linux music audio app usability
From: Billy Biggs (vektor_AT_div8.net)
Date: Thu Jun 13 2002 - 22:31:39 EEST
On Thu, 13 Jun 2002, Fred Gleason wrote:
> On Wednesday 12 June 2002 16:37, Billy Biggs wrote:
>
> > I see only two options: Go all the way, ask all users to pay, lose
> > personal ownership of the project and turn it into a product, or ask
> > nothing and expect nothing. Anything in between puts everyone in a
> bad > position: users might feel obligated to contribute even though
> they have > no guarentee of getting anything for it, or the author
> might feel > obligated to continue working even though the financial
> reward is > insufficient and charity rather than market driven.
>
> There's always the classic FSF model: an agreement with a particular
> user that needs a feature to add that feature for a specific price.
> The feature then becomes part of the standard open source distro (so
> all the community benefits). I understand Richard Stallman made a
> living for many years this way.
And what happened to sites like sourceXchange?
Regardless, I don't think there is much consumer interest in this model
because consumers can't afford my salary, nor are they willing to pay for
something until they see the finished, working product: there is too much
poorly written software out there to trust money to random developers,
even those with good track records.
That said, I don't want all software to be written for corporations
either. Software companies don't want soft-synths or drum machines, the
bulk of that market is consumers and prosumers, and what few companies
that do (studios etc) can't afford my salary either, especially if I'm
competing with commercial software that's only a few hundred dollars per
fully featured app.
-- Billy Biggs vektor_AT_div8.net http://www.div8.net/billy wbiggs_AT_uwaterloo.ca
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