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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..."
If you're worried about crashing your servers, create a project on Sourceforge and host your source code & binaries there.
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.
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