Re: Deriving economic profits from writing FREE software?

[Michael Stutz <stutz@dsl.org>]

On Wed, 21 Jan 1998, Anonymous wrote:

> Bill Stewart wrote:
> 
> > At 10:11 PM 1/16/98 -0600, Igor wrote:
> > >However, aside from the psychic benefits, I would like to somehow derive
> > >an economic profit from being a freeware author. So far, I feel that the
> > >status of the author of a popular package does sound good on a resume, but
> > >it is as far as I could get.
> > >
> > >Does anyone else feel the same way? Has anybody come up with a way to
> > >cash in on the free programs that he writes?
> > 
> > There's the standard shareware model - ask for $25.
> > There's the Cygnus model - charge money for support.
> > There's the Netscape/McAfee/etc. model - free for personal use,
> >         charge money to companies that use it.
> > There's the Eudora model - basic version free, bells&whistles extra.
> > There's the advertising-banner model - the software/service is free,
> >         but usage hits an advertising banner in some way that
> >         filters money back to you.
> 
> There's the Intel model - give away software to sell new hardware.
> There's the Linus Torvalds model - people pay you to speak at conferences.
> There's the w3c model - pay money if you want it now, or wait and get it for
>         free next month.
> There's the book model - give away the software and sell the documentation.
> There's the PGP model - give it away until it becomes popular, then sell it.

There's the FSF model - give it away and ask for donations, but offer
	expensive "bundles" that are bought by enlightened companies and/or
	enlightened Dilberts at un-enlightened companies.
There's the Red Hat model - give it away on an ftp site but charge for a
	nice package with manual and support.
There's the Aladdin model - give away old versions but the latest is non-free.
There's the GNU ADA model - form a corporation to develop free software, and
	sell support contracts.

If you are interested in hack value and benefits to humanity, you are
probably best off avoiding the proprietary and shareware software models
(the two which will generally get you the most money, incidentally). But
this does not mean that you cannot write commercial software that is free;
see <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html>.

It is worth noting that freeware does not necessarily have to be free of
charge; the important thing is that it be _freed_ software, or "libre"
software -- as opposed to "gratis" software.


> ...and then there's the Microsoft model - give away 'free' software and
>    charge for the OS to run it...