Funding (was re: JIT)

lex at cc.gatech.edu lex at cc.gatech.edu
Sun Dec 19 14:24:14 UTC 2004


Avi Bryant <avi.bryant at gmail.com> wrote:
> I suspect the result of charging $5 for the next release of MC would
> be that almost everyone would simply continue to use the current
> release, or add whatever new features they wanted themselves.  

My response would be to rally a new open source group around the last
free version....  :)


> This
> isn't even because people care about the $5, but because it's less
> hassle and more peace of mind to use something that's free (especially
> if there was any attempt to circumvent pirating; nobody wants to enter
> a serial number every time they load MC into an image).  I could be
> wrong, but my guess is that for a tool to gain widespread adoption in
> the Squeak community, the code itself needs to be available freely;
> anything else will get routed around.

Nah, I disagree.  If someone wrote a great web browser, they could
charge $5 for it and I bet many people would buy copies.  It would have
to be really good and polished, of course.  I am extremely welcoming of
commercial software in Squeak, for all the crud that no one wants to
bother writing.

Keep in mind that whoeover wrote it, would need to do all the work
themselves.  No one will help you if you say you are writing commercial
software but are not going to give them a cut.

The funding model depends a lot on what you are trying to do.  If you
want to spread ideas, then go open source.  If you want to earn money on
selling software copies, then you need to go closed source.  And if you
want to earn money doing support, consulting, or something else, you
might want to consider open source anyway.

So, you have to look at the particular cases.  I'm not sure we have any problems
in Squeak that are amenable to throwing around a few quick bucks.  Harvesting
is an ongoing commitment, for example, not a one-off, and I am sure we
can come up with a better way for volunteers for doing it than what we
have.  (Or, smooth the current process so the current scheme is not so
unpleasant for those that do it.)


-Lex



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