Slashdot Mirror
Shareware and Unix?
McDoobie asks: "Is there a market for low cost shareware in the Linux/BSD and Unix market in general? Would it be worthwhile to have a small home based business next to ones regular day job producing well made, but small, shareware for an environment that is dominated either by large corporations or Open Source developers? If so, what should a potential developer/publisher focus on to make their products/price range attractive to customers? What type of customers are most likely to look into such software? SOHO? Small Enterprise? Home users?
In a nutshell, where should one begin when investigating the potential of the Un*x (and perhaps Apple) environment for the small time developer who's interested in earning a few dollars on the side?"
is a Doudie-head. Pun intended.
No comment.
Furthermore, people are really used to not paying for software. If you want them to register you'll have to be very annoying about it (risk losing users/customers due to percieved harassment), implement some technological countermeasure (also very irritating, and potentially useless against technologically sophisticated people) or just be nice and hope for the best (with the risk of people not really noticing/caring caring that your application is not BSD/GPL licensed.)
You best bet is probably giving registered users small benefits and services that others do not. How you would implement this exactly depends on your line of business.
Just remember not to piss off your userbase with too many nags/copy protections/long serials/spyware etc.
Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
Basically, no. There was something on here a couple'o'months back about ... ahhh ... some text editor or something, can't remember. Anyway, the point is that the author had sold 'n' thousand copies for the mac, ported it to Linux and sold something like four copies.
:)
So, quality shareware for Linux? F*ck that.
Commercial, expensive server software may have a market. Particularly if it enables interoperability with Windows (-1 Unfashionable).
Mac OSX? Now that's a different question. Here we have a target market that we *know* pays for things, otherwise they wouldn't have macs. The big danger is that whatever you write will be released at macworld as iWhatever three days before you release it and the market will be dead. Witness OmniWeb and Safari -> owned. Imagine making photo editing software for the mac now. Or an MP3 player. Or some presentation software. Or an email client. Or calendaring. You get my drift?
Shareware for Linux? Do get a grip
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
Support may cease anytime, and continued development is uncertain. With Free Software you can pay someone to fix problems when the original developer is gone. With shareware, you are screwed.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
small market but it's there. You just have to provide a semi unique piece of software. I registered MpegTV(mpegtv.com) many years ago as it was the best VCD and MPEG-1 player I could find. Even today I use it to rip my VCD tracks to MPEG files(the other tools screw them up for some reason). I also registered the commercial version of OSS a couple years ago for a particular kind of soundcard(Forgot which). I also registered opera. I don't know if any of them qualify as technically shareware but the general idea seems to be shareware to me(demo/trial free, purchase full version). Your probably not going to make much cash of yet another file manager, or yet another media player, gotta find something new..
a kind of 'service' company, instead ?
As pointed out, shareware on a free os doesn't sound that great. On the other hand, wouldn't people be ready to pay a small fee for having their database / browser / random application correctly installed & configured ?
Using SSH/Telnet, you can easily hop over that person's box, and do stuff directly. Of course that requires some trust between you & the user, since you'd prolly be able to trash the whole system ^_^
Another suggestion which comes to mind: develop software on-demand, and release the source as Open Source. Like, someone says 'ok, i need a small app that does this thingy, can't find it. i pay you some price, you make it, and release sources under an Open Source license.'
This has the advantage to ensure you do software which'll actually be used (even if by only one user !), and people will less likely be afraid of the 'company goes boum, source lost, money lost' scenario, since sources will be available...
Just me 2 cents of euro...
Tsuyoikoto ha taisetsu da ne, dakedo namida mo hitsuyousa (Strength is an important thing, but tears too are necessary)
Here's what I'd do (if I was in your position and not employed by a company that wouldn't like me doing something like this). Seriously:
Construct a well-designed web site to support your software, and slap a "give me money" donation button on it from amazon, c2it, etc on it. (Not paypal coz they're bad). Cheap, good website hosting can be had for around $10 a month, getting more expensive as your site uses more bandwidth (asking them to set transfer caps can be good to stop racking up $$ charges $$ if your site is wildy popular by accident but nobody donates). See webhostingtalk.com for some opinions. Of course then there's sourceforge, etc.
The software should almost sell itself. If the program, documentation, code and support you provide are a seamless, efficient, useful mechanism for people to get work done - you'll get donations. Maybe not too many, but perhaps it'll be enough to pay for the site hosting and buy a couple of new music CD's a month. Give your users code so they can be assured new versions of the application cannot be denied them by you.
Nobody likes nag-ware. However - put a (not overly offensive) "Please Donate!" at the top of the documentation, then perhaps pop up a dialog when the program is started after it's been installed for a week (critical point - clearly give the user a checkbox to *never* see that dialog ever again, even if they don't donate).
Hopefully a few will think "This software's great! Maybe I should give them a couple of $'s." If they don't want to give you money they might recommend the software to a friend, expanding your user base. If only 1% of your users ever donate the trick will be to get lots of users.
That's what I'd do. Am I on crack? Comments?
Maybe shareware on Linux would be a way to distribute relatively inexpensive niche programs that use patented algorithms, such as wavelet encoding for image compression. Because money is involved, the patent could be used and paid for legitimately. Obviously this doesn't help the fight against software patents...
Stick Men
If you just want to program something on your spare time, go for GPL. You can still accept donations from grateful users, and/or for implementing wishes, and/or sell support contracts.
If you just need more pocket money, get a side job. Sell something, wash cars, or support windows.
The intention is honorable, but the wording could be clearer. For instance, who decides whether the company is committed enough? Or whether it's meeting demand? When it's insupported? Who deems it ``abandonware''?
Personally, I think much could be gained by using concrete and verifiable criteria, such as "at least a major/minor/mainenance release in a twelve month period" or "the company's website being unavailable for a period of 30 consecutive days".
Just be careful, because weaseling out of such an agreement will not be quite as easy as it would be with a more abstract one.
Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
However, for games there is no commercial market. Maybe a shareware segment could fit in here. I would love seeing some of the PC shareware games ported to unix.
Your software should be unique, irreplaceable and of a very good quality. It should also occupy a specific niche unreacheable for large corporations.
Example: Vuescan
I think that it will be hard to do. The free-Unix crowd is used to having their cake for free and even if you came up with something unique, some developer would probably create a free clone of it.
Since you mentioned MacOS X, I would suggest developing for them as your primary audience. Offer a version for Unixes as well, provided you can do so without killing yourself, as paying users on those platforms will probably be few.
The only thing that could work:
Develop for the corporate market, but make pretty
sure that it can't be used in a commercial environment licensewise, and allow a no-nonsense
license on registration.
Distribute with source (take piracy for granted, therefore the corporate market as target), support only
1) registered users
2) people that have something interesting (new features/ bug fix).
You could be kind of a 'mercenary for hire'.
e.g develop a universal installshield like application installer and charge companies to package their stuff with it - overcome ISV's concerns with binary compatibility between linux's/bsd's (this idea probably wont hold if autopackage lives up to what it says it can do)
develop and maintain binary drivers for hardware products - get access to hardware info under NDA's, something open source developers wont do.
do whatever else open source developers wont touch...
This is available as shareware on Linux Mac and Windows, you can play the first 20% of the game for free, only if you register can you play the rest. Registration is quick and reasonably priced.
I have a hard time imagining that they are getting really rich by this arrangement though, but perhaps some money is trickling in ? I suppose I'm not the *only* person sending them cash :-)
something useful, I'd buy it. But it would have to be better than something that's free.
Cyberbite Networks - Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers & Colocati
Everybody wants everything for free.
Actually, every teenager wants everything for free.
I've been using and developing Linux for a long time now, right from the start.
It's a good OS, I love it, and given the right massaging is even good for Granny.
But the BASTARDS who demand that everything must be free or it's crap really piss me off.
I'm the guy who openly and freely donates money to any good software I use that accepts donations. Last year I must of spent something like $3000 on "Free" solutions, and would of gladly paid more.
Why? Because I'm sick of this whole "it must be free" mentality. So much shit won't EVER get ported or developed for Linux in a serious manner because the mentality of the under 20 crowd, the cheap broke as fuck crowd, that demands it all be free.
Im no old man either, I'm 26. But of all the Linux "it all must free" Zealots I talk to, they are almost all under 20.
They don't seem to understand why people won't give everything away for free. They don't have to pay any bills living in their mommie's basement begging her for cash.
Unfortunately, in the real world, it doesnt work out that way.
I WILL, AND DO, PAY FOR ANY SOFTWARE I FEEL IS HIGH QUALITY. AND I WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO
Sincerely,
Anonymous
Head Developer, [CENSORED] Distro.
I've been thinking about productizing software development as part of my private enterprise. Most of the cases ordered from me have fit GPL/BSD style licenses, but i've received payment for the development work by hour.
I think that most Unix operators require the source and development rights, as well as rights to use the product unlimitedly, with the possible exception of reselling the product as long as the original producer continues offering it. I do. I shy away from restrictive licensing. But you should and can put a price for your own work. The best price you can get for it. That is even RMS-compatible!-)
Release 0.9 versions of your software, and make an easily usable wish gathering website. Users should be able to come up with fixes and features they want for next stable release, and prices they would pay for the implementation. Then you can decide which ones you implement. You can also pay part of the promised price to anyone else who comes up with an implementation patch, and keep part of it for yourself for organizing the payment system and taking responsibility of the releases.
One thing that keeps free software from being deployed in many places is the old problem of "who do you sue". You can always offer to take some responsibility of malfunctions for a price. This price you can set yourself, after you've thought through the risks you will be ready to take and writing the support agreement accordingly.
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
That being said, don't let that stop you from producing the software and making a little side money. I've been buying UNIX software for Linux/FreeBSD for a long time, but I always opt the open-source and free route before I step into something like ApplixWare. Still, there are people out there that have unique offerings for UNIX (NcFTP springs to mind) which I purchase, both as a home user and a corporate decision maker.
I have a few apps that I've been collecting together to make a package. My intent with these is not to provide an open-source tool, but rather to provide a low-cost alternative toolkit to commercially available solutions. The two major competitors I'm going after start at $5000 a seat. It was because of their price that I've been forced into writing an alternative. So, I'm going to get paid - but I don't expect that it will be a full-time business, just a separate flow of income. I don't want the overhead of advertising, solicitation, etc.
On the other hand, I guess I can't really give you the advice one way or the other, since I haven't started selling my wares, yet! Good luck to you.
main(){char I,l,O[]={'-',1-1,0,(1<<5)-1,0+'-',-10-1,-10,11-0,
Since the vast majority Linux development tools are Free and installed by default by many distributions, there's less justification for someone to hack out a craptapular trivial app, closed source, and charge money for it. Most shareware apps are not advanced enough to compete with open source equivalents. If the shareware app is a simple accomplishment, which many are, someone will eventually scratch an itch, make an open source work-alike, and ever-after that open source app will gain the benefit of a wider pool of developers.
It would make more sense for someone seeking light income to either create a closed source app that is truly above-and-beyond anything currently open source, or to make their app open source and charge money for it under an honor/donation system, or for support, or for automatic updates, or in exchange for additional customization/integration work, or one of the other various schemes others have come up with.
It's the example MS and other closed-source OS vendors set with the exclusive and expensive licensing of developer tools and developer documentation, that encourages closed-source shareware. Thankfully, Linux is not hampered by these barriers to development.
As it was said many times before me, it is near impossible to make money selling software on linux or bsd systems to people who expect to get it for free, and with the source. However, an effective money-making strategy within the open-source world is making an entrance.
Not everyone that uses open-source OS's is computer-savvy. They might have an idea of what they are doing but still need help a lot of the time, or they may be in a mission-critical possition where they do not have the time to spend asking questions and waiting for potentially unrelated or unhelpful answers on newsgroups or forums. These are the points that you want to capitalize on.
Take MySQL for example. The software is very good and very much free. But with all that work put in, where does it pay off? By selling support to corporate users, or customers in need of expert help from the core developers themselves. Packages start at the bottom with an inexpensive installation help package, all the way up to a package with a hefty price tag that will give the buyer unlimited email dialogue with the team, give the team login access to your server to help with administration, and 24/7 telephone support.
However, most start-ups do not have the resources that have accumulated over time for the MySQL team. The other option, also done by MySQL, is alternate licensing. That is, selling your software under a different, non-free license for a price. For MySQL, buyers of the alternate license can include the database's libraries royalty-free, and not have to worry about their application being inherently GPL-compatible.
Using the Windows idea of shareware, where authors slap a $10 registration on even the most useless software, will be shot down by the open-source community since users simply will not pay for software outside of something worth the money, such as OSS (Open Sound System). Selling product support and alternate licenses have had success by many different companies, and if done right it can be successful for you.
This looks like good business because with many scanners, Open Source software (SANE) does not work, and scanner manufacturers provide no Linux support. Either you don't scan or you don't use Linux or you use this closed-source program.
dont confuse open source with free. I have used MVCSoft's CMP persistance manager ( JAVA, EJB ) and it cost $200 per seat, and you get full documentation and full source, with examples. If you do decide to do unix/linux stuff, this would be an option, or maybe pay xx and get the source.
personally, I do not think that Linux is in the home yet ( except for 'hobbyists' ). Where you might look is in the small office area or businesses that need specfic software done ( the rent a coder thingy )
Anyway I think that small PDA apps are the place to go. The palm OS is 'c' like, and the compiler is just gcc (cygwin on windows.) lots fo simple apps go for like $10 and most people have no trouble with spending that kind of money, even to just try out an app.
by the way, if you dont have a pda, plam has an emulator that you can test your apps with, and if you sign up as a developer, then you can download a rom so that you dont even have to by one.
The general opinion (not mine) among Palm customers seems to be that $10 or less is all anyone should ever pay for Palm software. There is no inexpensive way to prevent rampant copying. The few companies I see making money from Palm software (i.e., as their business and not a hobby) have a hardware component or sell support to their corporate customers (or both).
If you'd have read the license agreement, you'd have found that xv only needs to be registered for corporate use. Private use is free of charge.
Yep, I remember LORD. I ran this on RA and, yes, I registered the thing, too. It was very, very popular with the users.
Shareware under Linux? Sure, why not? As a DOS & OS/2 user, I registered tons of the stuff. My BBS software, various transfer protocols, doors, editors, mailers, readers... There was very, very little installed on my system that WASN'T shareware or freeware.
:o)
As a Linux user, there is less need for it simply because computing has come a long way since the early '80s. Back in '83 when I got started, there was barely any software out there period. Common sales line was "I want WordStar & SuperCalc" and the sales guy would put together a computer for you to run it on.
A lot of what has been done incrementally over the years has been reinvented on Linux. Overall, the amount of software available is boggling. So, what about Shareware? Is there still a need for it?
Absolutely. I'm a registered user of several licenses of the shareware OSS sound driver for Linux. I've been using it for years. Why? Well, if you don't know, you haven't tried it. Yes, I can compile sound support under Linux. Been there, done that and, frankly, I'd rather spend a few bucks to have installable support that doesn't require even the most basic kernel compile. Just fire up the installer and if you've ordered the right options, 60 seconds later you've got sound.
Even better? Found a bug and reported it. Less than 48 hours later, OSS sent me a new binary to test. Works like a charm. Open source fixes bugs the fastest? DON'T COUNT ON IT, PEOPLE. In fact, when it comes to bugs, I most often here "fix it yourself if you want it fixed." That's open source mentality. You have the code, so fix it.
I don't have time. I'd rather pay some bucks and have somebody worry about the nuts'n'bolts for me. OSS is a perfect example of finding a niche market and really capitalizing on it.
Next PC I build will definitely have a commercial OSS driver installed. And feel free to flame away. I could care less.
Are you a potential shareware developer? Know a huge amount about audio recording? Intimate with Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro and its recording console UI metaphor? Have some time? Want some money?
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME.
Linux, as great as it is, still has some huge holes. I want a Cakewalk GT2/GTPro clone under Linux. Cakewalk isn't interested. There are a bunch of musicians out there, like me, who only boot Windows to use Cakewalk.
Code it. If it works well, I'll pay, say, $50 for a good GT2 clone. Double the price if you can do a good GTPro clone.
I would pay money, say $25, for a CUA text editor (i.e. Windows/Mac-style keybindings) that runs in a console. It has to run in the console so I can use it over ssh. I'm thinking of something like nedit (but for the console); or like Notepad on Windows but with features; or like EditPlus which is what I use in Windows. Strangely, there don't seem to be any free/cheap ones around. Jed comes close, but setting it up the way I like would cost me more than $25 of my time.
Ghostscript comes to mind; there are two separate licenses: the AFPL license requires a fee and is necessary if you are commerically distributing Ghostscript. If not distributing commerically, you can instead use the standard GPL license. The author has done very well for himself using this "dual license" model.