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Would you pay a monthly subscription fee for open source software? That's what +Bryan Lunduke wants to find out. A lot of people get paid to write open source code, but I don't know of any that are paid directly by the end users.
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And just to clarify: I have written proprietary code for a living before as well. What I mean was I would never dream of doing that for a project that I started and have full control over.May 29, 2012
If you use gnu/linux, you can help pay for it's development right now by becoming an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.
https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom?
I don't give them as much money as I give oligarchs for electricity, gasoline and other necessities, but I'm much happier with what they give back.
Richard Stallman has long said that production and distribution of software are separable problems that should not be linked. He practiced this himself by customizing emacs with free software for a living. Now he's advocating grants for further development.May 30, 2012
Which is fine if you want to support FSF-funded projects. There's a whole lot more open source than that though.May 30, 2012
Support the Apache Foundation then.May 30, 2012
I am at a loss as to why it is better to give money to an organisation who then give it out to people they choose, rather than to give it directly to the people you choose.
I mean, we're not hitting economies of scale or anything here; in a Kickstarter world, it's not only possible but viable to try and identify a self-sustaining donation community. OK, Bryan Lunduke can be something of a bellend at times, but I say that with love; good ideas are good ideas, no matter who's doing them, and the idea of saying "I want to work on open source software; if you guys can pay me to do so, I will do so" is a good idea. It is close to being the only sustainable model for single-person open source development that I've ever heard. I would like to see it succeed as a model, even if it fails in this particular case. Sneering at Bryan because you don't like his attitude might actually be counter-productive here. Suggesting that it's wrong to pay individuals to work on things and instead give the money to the ideological think-tank of your choice seems like yesterday's model to me, which didn't work out great for us.May 30, 2012
I don't sneer at him. I was voicing an opinion. There are a lot more indie devs out there who do a lot better work (IMO) and I very regularly give them my money.May 30, 2012
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