On Wednesday 12 June 2002 22.37, you wrote: > On 12 Jun 2002, nick wrote: > > What would be really good is if people donated money to the > > projects they find useful (paypal/nochex), because I sure as hell > > dont see the major distros supporting media apps development any > > time soon. Maybe that's what's needed - a distributor making > > music systems, who can then put money back into the apps. > > I don't really see that as a viable option. If I solicit > 'donations' then I take on the implied obligation of doing work > which may not be possible or worthwhile due to time constraints: I > think my time is worth alot of money, probably more than my users > think.
In my case, it's not really a matter of what I think my time is worth in money, but rather that I can't spend more time hacking, whether or not I get paid for it. Well, unless I get enough that I can quit my job, of course. Of course, in some cases, projects that get donations could perhaps get higher priority than others - but frankly, do we really care that much about money? At least, I don't. Or rather, I care much more about "quality time" and hacking stuff I like. Effectively working for money 12+/7 would just ruin my mental and physical health in no time, for no long term gain. (Situation's bad enough as it is! ;-) > I see only two options: Go all the way, ask all users to pay, > lose personal ownership of the project and turn it into a product, > or ask nothing and expect nothing. Anything in between puts > everyone in a bad position: users might feel obligated to > contribute even though they have no guarentee of getting anything > for it, or the author might feel obligated to continue working even > though the financial reward is insufficient and charity rather than > market driven. Exactly. //David .- M A I A -------------------------------------------------. | Multimedia Application Integration Architecture | | A Free/Open Source Plugin API for Professional Multimedia | `---------------------------> http://www.linuxdj.com/maia/ -' .- David Olofson -------------------------------------------. | Audio Hacker - Open Source Advocate - Singer - Songwriter | `-------------------------------------> http://olofson.net -'
