Re:Ask HN: How to stay open source and also make money?
by al_borland on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @06:04PM
(#40230110)
I’ve purchased a couple apps through App Stores that were free or open source, in an effort to support the development. Eventually the devs decided to put the code behind their own store, and I feel like I got the rug pulled a little bit.
I had to buy it again to get the latest version. The main app I’m thinking of, FileBot, I was waiting on a native Apple Silicon version. The stand alone download had it, but the App Store did not. If I remember correctly, this was due to a dependency not being updated or universal, so they have 2 separate binaries on their site, and the App Store allows for the one universal binary. Eventually it seemed like the update would never come, so I bought it again. When I first bought it, there was no non-App Store option, so I specifically bought it to support them… I could have gotten it from their site for free if I remember correctly, and feel like I got the short end of the stick.
I had to buy it again to get the latest version. The main app I’m thinking of, FileBot, I was waiting on a native Apple Silicon version. The stand alone download had it, but the App Store did not. If I remember correctly, this was due to a dependency not being updated or universal, so they have 2 separate binaries on their site, and the App Store allows for the one universal binary. Eventually it seemed like the update would never come, so I bought it again. When I first bought it, there was no non-App Store option, so I specifically bought it to support them… I could have gotten it from their site for free if I remember correctly, and feel like I got the short end of the stick.