Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

Re:Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize? by antaviana on Tuesday May 30, 2017 @05:00PM (#14448500)

We used to have a freeware product that a few years after became a commercial product sold as a subscription.

When it was a freeware product, several people wanted to donate but we never accepted any donation, just to avoid the feeling of getting paid too low. Also I guess we were a bit equalitarian: we wanted that either nobody paid or that everybody paid.

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Re:Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize? by simplehuman on Wednesday May 31, 2017 @01:07AM (#14450530)

How did your existing customers react to it (switch bait?)

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Re:Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize? by antaviana on Wednesday May 31, 2017 @08:34AM (#14451957)

In general quite well. It is a B2B product and being able to pay gives them some assurance that there will be someone behind. The freeware version continued to exist, and the transition to actually pay was long (free beta for the subscription lasted 4 months). We also did a heavily discounted launch promotion so that the transition from nothing to something was a lot smoother for existing users. Here is the announcement we did: http://www.apsic.com/blog/?p=25

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Re:Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize? by bbcbasic on Thursday June 01, 2017 @08:21AM (#14459637)

Good opportunity to make their donations go to a charity. They can feel twice as good!

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