Hi Bruno, I am Agustín Benito Bethencourt, KDE e.V. Treasurer.
> It is important to mention that the Windows and MacOSX version are > distributed as demo ware. These binaries have only a limited number of > activities and the users are invited to buy an activation code through > paypal. The activation system is very simplistic, it does not require a > network connection and is included normally in our code. An average > developer can understand the activation system and create valid codes. I > have no way to know if a buyer use the code on one or more computer and > I don't care. Even if the money I get through this is encouraging, it is > not enough to work full time on it so I also have a day job. All the > money is officially declared and I pay taxes to the French government (I > live in Toulouse in France). > > This is an unusual practice for a free software, I took this decision to > make sure schools, teachers, parents who choose the GNU/Linux path get > an advantage over the ones staying on a proprietary platform. To my > surprise, it has been very well received by users and by the free > software developers. More than this, the duality of the project, > commercial and community allows it to benefit from the best of both > worlds. I won't explain you the advantage of a community behind a > project. For the commercial part, to my surprise, I have numerous > examples where GCompris was selected in a school _because_ they could > buy it. I do not have any decision power in this area and we do not have any specific policy about what business models are ideal/desired/allowed to become part of KDE. From this point of view I do not see any problem with your model. I agree with you that this model is unusual. I think I understand your reasoning behind it and I am glad to see that, from your point of view, it works. I must confess though that I am worry about the association between: * proprietary platforms = commercial * free platforms = non commercial that might be implied from this model. But the business models is a discussion that we need to solve within KDE. Your example will help us (enrich) to find good practices/solutions where we all feel comfortable and, at the same time, we can provide ways for contributors to be successful also in the financial area. With this in mind, I am very happy to see your request. Saludos -- Agustin Benito Bethencourt KDE eV Treasurer aben...@kde.org _______________________________________________ kde-community mailing list kde-community@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-community
