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121 sats \ 5 replies \ @Scoresby 9 Jan \ on: How FOSS devs maintain their apps? devs

I have never created nor maintained an app, so the following is probably not worth much, but I'm curious about it anyway:

I once suggested to a FOSS wallet app that they charge for the binaries of each release. Still make the source code freely available, but with each new release offer compiled binaries for a paid download. Each time you do a release, users buy the app again.

Now this sounds bonkers, and it probably is, but if the price was at the right level it would be more like users paying for new features than it would be like paying for the app over and over.

The problem is what to do about patches / vulnerability fixes. If a user buys 3.0 and then time goes by and the project releases 4.0, and later a vulnerability is discovered in 3.0, does the project release 3.1 for free?

I liked the idea because it generates a kind of stream of income for the project (as long as they have enough users and are releasing new features people actually want).

Nobody else liked the idea.

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102 sats \ 2 replies \ @optimism 9 Jan

If you charge for the binaries, your liability changes.

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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 9 Jan

That would be a bit of a bummer. Getting sued is not fun.

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102 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 9 Jan

The difference is users transforming into customers, so you'll also have a compliance nightmare in many places. Then you need to start gatekeeping your users by location.. and so on.

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102 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin OP 9 Jan

Another approach is to charge a small fee for github proposals and also other users could upvote a feature request or bug to be fixed with sats.
The items mostly voted will be taken in consideration and also get more sats / income.

I wonder why we do not have such thing in SN.
Users of an app, post requests and all sats goes to devs. Also support answers get back sats.

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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 9 Jan

I like this idea, too. Maybe a poll for new features where a vote costs a set fee.

Maintainers of a project may not want to take it the direction that gets the most sats. But if the feature requests were posted like a bounty, with sats awarded when the feature is released, perhaps it could work.

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