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Ask Justin Frankel
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Question: Is making software free to use, without blocking it, a good thing? In my opinion, free software is a bad concept. People don't realize how much work is involved. And it develops an even more ungrateful mentality among users. They only want what's free. Do we eat and dress for free? So why could we use software for free?
Asked by Mickael (91.165.163.x) on April 15 2024, 7:29pm
Reply on April 15 2024, 7:47pm:

Disagree, it's a false equivalency. Software is not food or clothing.

Comments:

Posted by Mickael (91.165.163.x) on April 15 2024, 8:05pm:
It's the result of work like composing music, writing a book... it should pay off after a couple of months :)
Posted by Justin on April 15 2024, 9:19pm:
Sometimes it's about getting paid, other times it's about the process or the art. It doesn't mean one is a bad concept. Just different.
Posted by Mickael (91.165.163.x) on April 15 2024, 9:41pm:
It's a bad concept in the sense that I think free everything is destructive after a while. In all fields, free access often leads to degradation and ... money helps to regulate and balance. Paying a little, even 1 dollar for our software (VLC...) would seem more logical and normal to me. But that's my opinion :) 60 dollars for software like Reaper for about 8 years is very reasonable.
Posted by Justin on April 15 2024, 10:49pm:
You need both. If Linux (or some equivalent) were not free that would be terrible.
Posted by Justin on April 15 2024, 10:50pm:
"that would be terrible" means "the world would be terrible"
Posted by mickael (78.241.97.x) on April 16 2024, 5:45pm:
Linux at 1 € would not make the world horrible :) You are too nice, people do not deserve so much ;)
Posted by Justin on April 16 2024, 6:01pm:
Conceptually you may be right, but if you were to try to implement that, it would get incredibly ugly fast on all sides and be a disaster. Don't believe me? I have at least a hundred questions that have no right answer that nobody would agree on. #1: where does the 1 euro go?
Posted by Justin on April 16 2024, 6:06pm:
setting aside the user experience -- if a project involves many contributors, if you try to run it as a business, that will create too much friction and it won't work.
Posted by Mickael (91.165.163.x) on April 16 2024, 6:48pm:
1€ for research into diseases, for example, if there are several contributors. Etc...:)
Posted by Mickael (91.165.163.x) on April 16 2024, 6:48pm:
1€ for research into diseases, for example, if there are several contributors. Etc...:)
Posted by Justin on April 16 2024, 7:25pm:
"for example" lol that's the point, it's arbitrary and nobody would agree. it's just silly. anyway ;)
Posted by DdSL (191.54.62.x) on April 16 2024, 9:33pm:
Sorry Mikael, but what actually is a "bad concept" is having to pay for food, books/education, art, medic/medication, software. Long life to open and accessible communities for everyone!
Posted by Mespotine (212.122.61.x) on April 17 2024, 3:13pm:
I also think that limiting the idea of payment to money is also a problem. I for instance don't have the money to support all podcasters I enoy and would like to support. So I contribute work for free software they can use to produce great podcasts. I pay with my work, they pay with their content. And if at some point someone also makes money it's fine with me, but not a neccessity.

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