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Elementary OS: Why We Make You Type "$0"
jones_supa writes Open source software can always be acquired without charge, but can still incur significant development costs. Elementary OS wants to make people aware of this, and have changed their website to suggest donating when downloading, and make users explicitly enter "$0" if they want a free download. This is the same strategy Canonical has used when offering Ubuntu. The Elementary OS blog explains: "Developing software has a huge cost. Some companies offset that cost by charging hundreds of dollars for their software, making manufacturers pay them to license the software, or selling expensive hardware with the OS included. Others offset it by mining user data and charging companies to target ads to their users. [...] If we want to see the world of open source software grow, we should encourage users to pay for its development; otherwise it'll be underfunded or developers will have to resort to backdoor deals and advertising. And nobody wants that future." Currently the only people who have received money for working on Elementary OS have been community members through their bounty program.
these guys think they should type $0 everytime they checkout source code from the upstream projects where the vast majority of the work actually occurs?
We 'make' you type 0$, then we write a lengthy blog post about why you're evil and cheating the system for not paying us for our ubuntu clone we slapped a osx knock-off UI on.
They really aren't 'developing' anything, sure putting together a nice interface takes work but they really aren't doing anything a determined user couldn't do themselves. Besides that, do they even send patches up stream? Do they fix security issues or send patches upstream? Or do they just feed off ubuntu and debian?
This is an absolutely disgusting stance and I can't wait to see this distro fade into obscurity.
Elementary OS' contribution to their own distribution is probably less than 1%. Almost all the effort into writing and packaging the software has been carried out by others. They are standing on the shoulders of giants. Why the fuck should they demand money for other people's work? It is disrespectful to call people cheaters, when they are grabbing money in exchange for other people's work! If anything, that is cheating. Elementary OS are so entitled its untrue.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
Others offset it by mining user data and charging companies to target ads to their users
Just because you pay doesn't guarantee anything:
Samsung:http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/11/8017771/samsung-smart-tvs-inserting-unwanted-ads, http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa...
My paid for virus checker, bitdefender pops up adds for me to buy the latest version (before my subscription is up), interrupting games.
By a dvd, go to the movies, have to watch advertisements.
People will try to extract as much money out of you as they can, that is what capitalism is all about, just because you have paid doesn't stop or even encourage them to stop making money out of you in as many ways as they possibly can. I fact I feel it is sometimes the opposite, the more you pay the more they want.
I really don't see what the big deal is here. Sure, they aren't responsible for most of the software in their repositories... like all other distros. They still work to maintain this distribution. If they ask to get paid, what's the matter? If you can have access to a distribution made possible only through hours and hours of hard work at the cost of feeling guilty for a second as you type "0$", I don't think you have any reason to complain, honestly. You're not being forced to pay in any way. There is nothing morally wrong with this. I encourage other developpers to do the same if they want some compensation.
Man, slashdot is really grumpy today.