He already GPL'd the software. Didn't you read the first two parts of my post?
yes, I did. I am saying that he would be better off releasing another version, under a closed source license. Similar to mysql.
Nothing says that girls can't be afraid of girls as well. This is not just joking, lots of women prefer the company of male friends over female friends. Especially gay men or nerds who they need not constantly fend off. In real live women who are socially inept are just shy. A female virgin of 24 is just waiting for the right man. A male virgin of 24 is a loser.
It is just easier to make fun of male geeks because we know what we are.
That's because almost any woman can get a guy to sleep with her, but a guy has to actually put in some serious effort (some less than others, but there at least needs to be some effort involved) to get laid.
If you ever look in the misc. romance section of craigslist, the male seeking female section has a ton of posts from guys looking for sex. The female seeking male, however, is littered with ads for escort services.
Plan number three, release code for free and try to get companies to adopt it and pay you for support and customization. This is probably your best bet at this point. You need to find out what current companies charge for support and what they charge for their software and meet or beat their prices; or, you need to provide significantly more functionality. You need to get some good sales guys and give them the advantages of your product over other products. Main advantages you hold include the fact that it is open and thus they can migrate to other systems and that you or they can customize it to meet their needs. Find out what their current software doesn't do that they would like and make yours do it, just for them. Emphasize the personal service as part of a support contract that is semi-annually renewed or whatever. This is your revenue. Drawbacks to this include that the better your software gets, the less likely they are to need support and they can always go with their own IT dept. or with a competitor for support. You have the edge in that you know it better than anyone and are someone external to blame/call.
I think open source is great. I use apache, mysql, php, and firefox on a daily basis. However, I don't think it is very viable business model.
To have a profitable business, software support and customizations should be used as a secondary form of income rather than the primary. This is because you will always be limited by how many support contracts you can actually work on in a certain period of time. Especially with a small/one man company. Selling software under a license/per-copy model makes a lot more sense. You can do the other things you need to do to get your software out there (marketing,answering customer/client emails,etc) and still have the money coming in to pay the bills. The support comes in as an after thought (your client likes your software and wants X,Y, or Z features added).
This doesn't mean you have to stop supporting the open source community. You can still release other types of software/utilities under the GNU.
Donations also do not work. I read somewhere that 1 in 3000 (this can be as high as 10000) of your visitors will actually donate something to site/product.
I suggest you read joel on software, the business of software: link Here
If you really appreciate writing, wouldn't you want as many as possible to have access to and read your books, even if the majority didn't pay you? (In contrast to only a few/lesser reading your works, but everyone reading them also paid you.)
I look at it in this way. A writer or an artist that wants to be compensated still can really appreciate writing. If they are compensated, they won't have to get a regular job, and can continue writing/creating new material. I think most people would love to get paid for what they enjoy doing.
Money is also, in most people's eyes (I know there are many exceptions), a measure of success. It is also required to live in almost any part of the world. If someone writes a book that is read and enjoyed by many people, don't they deserve to be compensated for something?
I'm looking to change that "habit." I've found some great bands who are willing to give up control in exchange for promotional dollars towards their live performances and their official works. Everything we "release" freely will be indexed by the various Internet engines so that the lyrics or content is "dated" by the original creator. This doesn't give them a legal leg to stand on, but it will help others see who made something first. My biggest hope is to see Wal*mart or Amazon or someone else take the content, repackage it and sell it even under a different name. Will they? I doubt it, but it would only help the cause.
I keep seeing you post about this. So artists are going to give up control of their music in exchange for promotional dollars toward their live performance. Isn't this just switching between cartels? The only difference is your method of promotion. Now, Artists will have even less of a chance of making money signing up with you and have no control. If they are going to be giving all of their music away for free, they would have a better chance starting a blog and promoting it independently.
My biggest hope is to see Wal*mart or Amazon or someone else take the content, repackage it and sell it even under a different name. Will they? I doubt it, but it would only help the cause
How will this "help the cause"? it may spread your music around, which is good. But if walmart is selling it..they will get all the profits (and at nearly no cost to them).
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He already GPL'd the software. Didn't you read the first two parts of my post? yes, I did. I am saying that he would be better off releasing another version, under a closed source license. Similar to mysql.
Nothing says that girls can't be afraid of girls as well. This is not just joking, lots of women prefer the company of male friends over female friends. Especially gay men or nerds who they need not constantly fend off.
In real live women who are socially inept are just shy. A female virgin of 24 is just waiting for the right man. A male virgin of 24 is a loser.
It is just easier to make fun of male geeks because we know what we are.
That's because almost any woman can get a guy to sleep with her, but a guy has to actually put in some serious effort (some less than others, but there at least needs to be some effort involved) to get laid.
If you ever look in the misc. romance section of craigslist, the male seeking female section has a ton of posts from guys looking for sex. The female seeking male, however, is littered with ads for escort services.
Plan number three, release code for free and try to get companies to adopt it and pay you for support and customization. This is probably your best bet at this point. You need to find out what current companies charge for support and what they charge for their software and meet or beat their prices; or, you need to provide significantly more functionality. You need to get some good sales guys and give them the advantages of your product over other products. Main advantages you hold include the fact that it is open and thus they can migrate to other systems and that you or they can customize it to meet their needs. Find out what their current software doesn't do that they would like and make yours do it, just for them. Emphasize the personal service as part of a support contract that is semi-annually renewed or whatever. This is your revenue. Drawbacks to this include that the better your software gets, the less likely they are to need support and they can always go with their own IT dept. or with a competitor for support. You have the edge in that you know it better than anyone and are someone external to blame/call.
I think open source is great. I use apache, mysql, php, and firefox on a daily basis. However, I don't think it is very viable business model.
To have a profitable business, software support and customizations should be used as a secondary form of income rather than the primary. This is because you will always be limited by how many support contracts you can actually work on in a certain period of time. Especially with a small/one man company. Selling software under a license/per-copy model makes a lot more sense. You can do the other things you need to do to get your software out there (marketing,answering customer/client emails,etc) and still have the money coming in to pay the bills. The support comes in as an after thought (your client likes your software and wants X,Y, or Z features added).
This doesn't mean you have to stop supporting the open source community. You can still release other types of software/utilities under the GNU.
Donations also do not work. I read somewhere that 1 in 3000 (this can be as high as 10000) of your visitors will actually donate something to site/product.
I suggest you read joel on software, the business of software: link Here
If you really appreciate writing, wouldn't you want as many as possible to have access to and read your books, even if the majority didn't pay you? (In contrast to only a few/lesser reading your works, but everyone reading them also paid you.) I look at it in this way. A writer or an artist that wants to be compensated still can really appreciate writing. If they are compensated, they won't have to get a regular job, and can continue writing/creating new material. I think most people would love to get paid for what they enjoy doing. Money is also, in most people's eyes (I know there are many exceptions), a measure of success. It is also required to live in almost any part of the world. If someone writes a book that is read and enjoyed by many people, don't they deserve to be compensated for something?
I'm looking to change that "habit." I've found some great bands who are willing to give up control in exchange for promotional dollars towards their live performances and their official works. Everything we "release" freely will be indexed by the various Internet engines so that the lyrics or content is "dated" by the original creator. This doesn't give them a legal leg to stand on, but it will help others see who made something first. My biggest hope is to see Wal*mart or Amazon or someone else take the content, repackage it and sell it even under a different name. Will they? I doubt it, but it would only help the cause.
I keep seeing you post about this. So artists are going to give up control of their music in exchange for promotional dollars toward their live performance. Isn't this just switching between cartels? The only difference is your method of promotion. Now, Artists will have even less of a chance of making money signing up with you and have no control. If they are going to be giving all of their music away for free, they would have a better chance starting a blog and promoting it independently.
My biggest hope is to see Wal*mart or Amazon or someone else take the content, repackage it and sell it even under a different name. Will they? I doubt it, but it would only help the cause
How will this "help the cause"? it may spread your music around, which is good. But if walmart is selling it..they will get all the profits (and at nearly no cost to them).