Well the basic idea is to be able to make a living by writing free software. But how can it be done, if you give it away for free? Well it does not make any sense to sell copies, because copies are free (the proprietary way), but it does make sense to pay for the development of free software. The question is how? - This is exactly what I am thinking about, a working model needs at least the following attributes: - there must be an incentive to pay something - it must be easy to give money - what happens with the money must be transparent - actual work is done with the money - it must be as popular as possible, everyone knowing free software should know the platform where he/she can invest in software - clear goals for projects should be specified
These are at least the most important points. If it was possible to build such a platform, it could be possible to pay a lot more developers for full time work on free software, ideally it would make proprietary software obsolete (I admit that's ambitious). I know most of you do coding for fun, but in my personal opinion and experience, getting money for fun is even better. The ones that simply don't want money for their work, would not have to take money, the traditional spare time coding is not abolished. The major goal is simply to make full time development of free software more common place, in order to increase quality, diversity and entering fields where free software is not that prominent these days. The question is whether it could work, at the moment I think "yes", if you do it right. Projects like Ardour already show that there is potential. That's just a few thoughts, of what I have in mind. What's your opinion? Once again, thanks for your input, it helps a lot! Best regards, Robert
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