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How Best To Launch Free Software?
Chip asks: "The small business for which I work is preparing to release a free software title for Windows and hopefully Mac and Linux as well. This software is something I believe many people around the world will find useful without ever having to pay a dime. Does anyone have experience with releasing free software on a small budget? Any advice would be very helpful. We have a few months to prepare for beta launch and I am nervous about getting the word out, crashing our servers, etc..."
First enligntenment post since August '01! Could this remind everyone that this topic exists?
"When all else fails, there's always delusion." -Conan O'Brien
If you're worried about crashing your servers, create a project on Sourceforge and host your source code & binaries there.
Well, you could start creating a buzz by talking about your software here. And when it comes to launch time, you could crash test your servers by submitting an announcement to slashdot :-)
And when you do launch it, get all the software download sites to mirror it (tucows, cnet, etc), and submit it to special interest magazines and sites for review.
Most open source projects goes live without _any_ budget. All that it takes is time (which is a cost for companies, but not for voluntary workers). As for servers and such, put a page on sourceforge, and try to get a few mirrors up and running too (they will come, if the project is attractive).
As for the actual release, try to make a good presentation about the project, what it is meant to do, where you want to go with the development, and encourage a developers community with a forum of some sort (mailing list), also, most open source projects must have screenshots (why, I don't know?).
If the project is attractive, and you work hard enough you'll gather a group of power users. These users are great, ask them what they want, how they want it, and tell them to talk to you about anything that bugs them. You'll need all the feedback you can get.
Finally, and most importantlly: do not expect to have others working for you, they may report bugs, send small patches, you'll have to do most work, at least in the beginning.
Well, those are probably common tips, but i may as well tell'em:
* as others suggested, depending on your licence type / source code release plans (or lack of), you can put a page on Sourceforge, or Savannah, or any other software directory out there.
* register the project on Freshmeat (or any other software directory out there), that may help too
* try to spread the word about your projects where your potential users are, ie right forums / news sites / mailing-lists, and such
* explain clearly from the start what licence you will have: freeware ? free / OS software ? what will be the policy for submitted patches ?
* also think of all your requirements: do you want CVS access ? mailing lists ? how much downloads do you expect ? depending on the answers, you may hop to Sourceforge / Savannah, or rent server space, or such
As i said, prolly basic tips......
Tsuyoikoto ha taisetsu da ne, dakedo namida mo hitsuyousa (Strength is an important thing, but tears too are necessary)
I think he misunderstood what the topic is.
FYI (if you don't know), this topic is for the window manager enlightenment ( here) not about enlightening you about something.
Although, we should have an Enlightmenment (non-WM) one.
The most important thing to do is get word out. Word of mouth is by far your best bet and of course, it is best received through the words of satisfied users. Don't be too surprised if you don't have a huge "opening day." That's not important. What's important is do you grow AFTER that? Longevity is not guaranteed by a quick open. Get yourself in search engines. Get yourself on websites that relate. If you're going to be competing with another product, and they have a website with some sort of community forum, slip yourself a plug there. (Sure, it will probably be deleted, but the damage may well have been done before it is!)
If your product is a unique entity--that is, something new or relatively new that people haven't seen before--you may just be able to stand on your own.
If not, which is more likely the case (to some degree and in some regard), you need to offer something that others don't offer. Maybe it's ease of use, maybe it's a new feature. If you don't offer any of that, well, hopefully it's on par with the competition. The price is certainly right.
Good luck.
Yeah, charge some money for it, and do things right.
Oops, did I say that out loud?
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
Use native packaging: deb for Debian, rpm for Red Hat, some install wizard for Microsoft Windows (sorry, no experience here), etc. But first, start a SourceForge project, release a more or less woking source alpha version, installing in /usr/local.
Then try to integrate it with different operating systems,
to install in /usr, using their native packaging systems,
libraries, filesystem conventions, dependencies, etc.
As for Debian
(where I have the most of my experience),
read APT HOWTO,
start from 4.1 How to install locally compiled packages.
Then, try to include your program in unstable
release and work from there.
With other distros it's probably very similar.
I'm sure you'll find people willing to take care of packaging in their favourite OS, to make your application available there. Good luck.
root@aio:~# nmap -sX -iR -p1- # Ho, ho, ho! Merry Xmas, everyone!
The poster link links to a company, Complysite, that 'provides businesses with products that make documentation and training easier and more affordable'
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
If what you're doing is genuinely useful, you don't need to do anything. Make your work available on the web and let news spread by word-of-mouth and result-of-Google. It works for PuTTY.
(You'll get a much smoother growth curve with this sort of "soft launch", too, which will help a lot when you're planning how much bandwidth you need.)
1. Introduction
As everyone knows, Open Source software is the wave of the future. With the market share of GNU/Linux and *BSD increasing every day, interest in Open Source Software is at an all time high.
Developing software within the Open Source model benefits everyone. People can take your code, improve it and then release it back to the community. This cycle continues and leads to the creation of far more stable software than the 'Closed Source' shops can ever hope to create.
So you're itching to create that Doom 3 killer but don't know where to start? Read on!
2. First Steps
The most important thing that any Open Source project needs is a Sourceforge page. There are tens of thousands of successful Open Source projects on Sourceforge; the support you receive here will be invaluable.
OK, so you've registered your Sourceforge project and set the status to '0: Pre-Thinking About It', what's next?
3. Don't Waste Time!
Now you need to set up your SourceForge homepage. Keep it plain and simple - don't use too many HTML tags, just knock something up in VI. Website editors like FrontPage and DreamWeaver just create bloated eye-candy - you need to get your message to the masses!
4. Ask For Help
Since you probably can't program at all you'll need to try and find some people who think they can. If your project is a game you'll probably need an artist too. Ask for help on your new Sourceforge pages. Here is an example to get you started:
Thousands of talented programmers and artists hang out at Sourceforge ready to devote their time to projects so you should get a team together in no time!5. The A-Team
So now you have your team together you are ready to change your projects status to '1: Pre-Bickering'. You will need to discuss your ideas with your team mates and see what value they can add to the project. You could use an Instant Messaging program like MSN for this, but since you run Linux you'll have to stick to e-mail.
Don't forget that YOU are in charge! If your team doesn't like the idea of giant robotic spiders just delete them from the project and move on. Someone else can fill their place and this is the beauty of Open Source development. The code might end up a bit messy and the graphics inconsistant - but it's still 'Free as in Speech'!
6. Getting Down To It
Now that you've found a team of right thinking people you're ready to start development. Be prepared for some delays though. Programming is a craft and can take years to learn. Your programmer may be a bit rusty but will probably be writing "hello world" programs after school in no time.
Closed Source games like Doom 3 use the graphics card to do all the hard stuff anyhow, so your programmer will just have to get the NVidia 'API' and it will be plain sailing! Giant robot spiders, here we come!
7. The Outcome
So it's been a few years, you still have no files released or in CVS. Your programmer can't get enough time on the PC because his mother won't let him use it after 8pm. Your artist has run off with a Thai She-Male. Your project is still at '1: Pre-Bickering'...
Congratulations! You now have a successful Open Source project on Sourceforge! Pat yourself on the back, think up another idea and do it all again! See how simple it is?
How Best To Launch Free Software?
From the command line of course!
Next question please.
root@aio:~# nmap -sX -iR -p1- # Ho, ho, ho! Merry Xmas, everyone!
I don't think I can have respect for this nut.
Looking ahead to the Mac release, the place to announce it is on VersionTracker. All the Mac-heads look there for new and updated software. They have a Windows section too, but I can't say how useful it is.
--Paul
I prefer trebuchet.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Still off-topic: You may disagree with his politics, but I think ESR's writing on this site is pretty impressive -- if anything, it has increased my respect for him.
Peace gesture: I appreciate your nickname. When I recently travelled to Europe from America, I was amused that Mr. Clean (the bald-headed, ex-sailorish floor cleaner spokescartoon) was called Mr. Proper in Europe. One is tempted to draw cultural conclusions from this difference.
Are you saying it's a subliminal message telling you to stay off drugs?
Tell them what it is your launching?
If you'd have put that in your slashdot question then you'd already have a few thousand people know about it.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
He may be a nut (and, in fact, I'm fairly sure he is) but he has done more than anyone else to the Open Source Movement, i.e. he started it. He is to the Open Source Movement, what Albert Einstein is to the Special Theory of Relativity, what Martin Luther is to the Lutheran Church, and what Samuel Hahnemann is to Homeopathy. He is also to the Free Software Movement, what Albert Einstein is to the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, what Martin Luther is to Catholic Church, and what Samuel Hahnemann is to Pharmacy. And for that, I think he deserves our respect. I am sure everyone will agree with me about that. So, please, at the very least, show some respect, for God's sake!
~Christopher Doopov
If this is such a great software product and you are allowing it to be free, but you can't afford to distribute it, then...
Charge a reasonable fee for the distribution. $5 a download (depending on its size). P2P, FTP mirrors, news groups, and the like will take over from there. In the meantime you can cover your costs.
I don't think this is against the spirit of free software. Even if the user doesn't like the software, they did use your bandwidth. I think people would be willing to pay a small amount for it.
Then post it on Kazaa.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
You have touched on some topics that I believe are very important. When I said free, I meant freeware, but it will not be open. I am a big believer in open source. In the future, we hope to contribute a project to the open source community that will augment this offering. Unfortunately, we must keep the upcoming software proprietary, because a portion of our revenue model comes from controlling the code.
Another concern, which is highlighted by your comments, is that I want to make sure we do not make people angry by not fully disclosing our intentions for the use of the software. The idea is that we give away the software to individuals in a form that can be very useful to them without forcing them to spend money, but charge a fee for added functionality that will benefit businesses. This analogy has nothing to do with the real functionality, but think of it as if we are offering the first instant messenger, which we all know is very useful to individuals without paying anything. A business may want encryption or user management services, but they would have to pay us for that service.
This is a very powerful community and I hope that people here will get involved with the beta. I will submit a story with more information in the future and let the moderators decide if they see it as useful software to slashdot users.
By the way, sorry about the wrong category move, but it was enlightening nonetheless.
Thanks again,
Chip