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Interclue and What Going Proprietary Can Do

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the don't-get-greedy dept.

Linux.com (which shares a corporate overlord with Slashdot) has an interesting look at what going proprietary can mean for your overall effectiveness. Using Firefox extension "Interclue" as the object lesson, the piece looks at both the engineering and social difficulties surrounding the project. "Even more significantly, the efforts to commercialize only detract from the software itself. The basic idea behind Interclue would make for a handy Web utility, but seems too slight to build a business around. The effort to do so only leads to complications that do nothing to enhance the basic utility, and to pleas for donations that can only annoy. The result is that, if your position on free software doesn't lead you to avoid Interclue, the efforts to monetize it almost certainly will."

2 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. If you are going to sell it cheap, make it free. by tjstork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is actually true. I have a Linux site and a Windows site and the Windows site is filled with a couple of cheap apps that I wrote and the Linux site is all GPL free stuff. I've found that the Linux site actually makes me more money off of advertising revenues and I can leverage that as some experience on my resume for more work. Now in between contracts, what I'm going to do is refocus my Linux site and my Windows site into a single site that gives out a bunch of free stuff, and then, if I do want to charge for something, it won't be some crappy utility that noone registers anyway. Small utilities are advertising, in their own right.

    --
    This is my sig.
  2. Re:I also agree by cromar · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Overall I agree, but for a few points.

    teh FOSSies still can't forgive MS for competing with their beloved Netscape

    The problem was that MS used anti-competitive measures to hurt Netscape's market share and promote I.E.

    Would you REALLY trust a FOSS tax program?

    Yes, we would trust it if, say, a company such as H&R Block had the code analyzed and was able to certify its accuracy.

    that's why Slashdot grants Apple their "most favored monopoly" status

    The editors? Maybe. The commentators? ... I generally see about a ratio of 4 anti-fanboi posts to 1 Apple fanboi post when Apple comes up in discussion. In fact, I am noticing that there are more people complaining about Slashdot nowadays, but the posters they complain about seem to be harder to find...