Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
by 2muchcoffeeman on Monday September 30, 2013 @01:37AM
(#6467987)
Not everyone can or wants to work for those companies.
An Indie dev Bryan Lunduke, actually tried opensourcing his software and it didn't work.
If opensource is going to succeed, it can't just be driven by large corporations with tons of money.
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
by spacelizard on Monday September 30, 2013 @03:25AM
(#6468223)
That is a terrible, cherry-picked example. One man's personal failure at finding a good business model is not representative of the entire philosophy.
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
by 2muchcoffeeman on Monday September 30, 2013 @08:15PM
(#6473208)
Well, it was the only example that I could think of where a dev wanted to make a living from their software and offer it up as opensource.
So what is a viable model then? I build a kick-ass TODO list app or a casual game. I open source it. How do I make money from my efforts if I want to try and make this full time? This is not a service. I can't charge for support. Donations don't work. What else???
Re:Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
by rbanffy on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @06:03AM
(#6475166)
FOSS lacks one key aspect of the traditional software industry - it's never scarce. Any business model based on artificial scarcity will fail. If game development is what you are into and you want your game to be free you may charge for the game while releasing the code and retaining copyright of all non-code assets (visuals, music, sound effects etc).
Not this ridiculous, childish argument again. Your personal issues have nothing to do with FOSS advocacy.
There are many people who are paid exclusively (and well) to write FOSS. There are many more who contribute back to the products they use. The FOSS economy is vast, but difficult to see, largely because so few people pay directly for it, but it makes possible things like Google, Facebook, most of the Top 500 supercomputers, Android phones, most network appliances and so on. The list is much larger than would fit here.