More below.
Markus Törnqvist wrote:
On Thu, May 13, 2004 at 10:04:34PM +0200, Paul Wagland wrote:I haven't been able to get a large enough amount from distros to support us (but thanks to Lindows for being a major help), and darpa sponsors research not resizers, so I am thinking I might try selling the resizer. Our fiscal situation remains quite awful, and the resizer might be a way to fund the enhanced semantics. I guess it is time to try the mixed model in which we sell base code that is better than winfs/ext3, and some non-essential addons (like a resizer, maybe some non-essentail plugins, etc., ) are for sale and they fund the free stuff. I really want to see free software work as a business, so I keep trying things. Governments are not really set up to fund free software effectively yet, they fund research which is not quite the same as products that are usable.
Just a thought... Have you considered a "pledge" page? I.e, put up a list of features, and then allow people to "pledge" donations for when those features are finished. I for one would pledge 10USD for the repacker/disk optimiser, and yes, I know it isn't much, but you already have my donation for nothing :-) And, people often prefer to give money "to a cause".
Pass the hat around :)
Problem just is that the repacker is probably commercial for a reason. The reason being that it provides income at a steady pace. If it were "pledged" it would give some money, sure, but not at a steady pace.
I'm surprised if Hans hasn't given this some thought, being the logical extension of the $25 helpdesk.
Maybe the biggest problem is safe money transactions. You don't just deal to a foreign country, you deal out of the European Union.
And then there's this one country with a fairly large population that STILL hasn't moved beyond money checks. The one with fifty states.
Support does not make much money, a few hundred a month..... hopefully us accepting visa cards will improve this.
