HN

Comments (106)

• darkstarsys
  I'm mostly retired from a lifetime as a graphics programmer and CTO, and now I'm working through my lifetime of fun backlog projects. https://pcons.org, https://deep-timeline.org, https://pelorus-nav.com, https://packzen.org, https://github.com/garyo/sea-surface-temp-viz, https://globe-viz.oberbrunner.com/ and lots more. All open source and free.Sure, make money from software. I did. But when you have enough and it's time to give back, open source it.
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  SerCe
  Or don't. I've done both, published OSS projects and sold some software. The level of entitlement in some comments I received on the OSS side was pretty crazy at times. While with the paid software, all of the interactions I had were so much more constructive. YMMV, but willingness to pay is a great filter.
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  cortesoft
  I don't think this debate has an easy answer. Yes, not everything should be about money, but yes, we all need to make money to survive.I think we all agree the answer isn't, "No one should make any money writing software." I also think we can agree that the answer isn't, "you should charge money for every bit of software you write."So how do we decide which is which?I don't want to stop being a professional software developer. I have loved being able to support myself and my family by doing my favorite activity. It has let me enjoy going to work every day for over 20 years.I also don't think I should charge for random code work that I do for fun, though. I am not trying to monetize every minute of my day... but I do want to monetize enough of it that I can pay my mortgage, buy food, save for my retirement, and have some fun along the way.I don't know exactly where I am going with this, but it is my gut reaction when I see a post about how horrible it is to make money off of writing software. It has to be more nuanced than that.
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  gt0
  If I was going to write something for free, it would some weird itch-scratching thing for Plan 9 or something, it wouldn't be something most people would ever want.Realistically though, I'm not going to build software for free any more than I'm going to tidy someone's garden for free.FOSS has delivered some great software, it's also demonetised a lot of areas where software developers could be earning a living. I don't think software developers should feel any need to give away their efforts than any other professional should.FOSS has created pricing race to the bottom in software, and taken away financial incentive for improvement, it's not a 100% net positive.
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  fxtentacle
  I got burned with an attitude like this: unexpectedly, people who had downloaded my open source tool for free started expecting support. Some of them sent pretty unfriendly emails.
• the__alchemist
  One of the room elephants: Most free software projects will have 0 users beyond the author.
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  johnj-hn
  I'm doing exactly this. I started out only intending to create something for myself. As it got better, I thought that other people might want to use it. I briefly considered trying to sell it, and pretty quickly realized that I didn't want to ruin something I was having fun with by turning it into a business.Now, instead of worrying about sales, I get to feel good about giving something back to the FOSS community that has given me so much.I recognize that it is a position of privilege to be able to dedicate so much of my time to a project that gives me nothing financially... and in fact costs me money to produce. No shade at all to people who are not so lucky and need to sell what they make.Anyway, if you're interested, here's what I'm working on. Feature-wise it's come a long way since the last HN post about it.https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46619391And if you're not interested, that's OK, because I'm not trying to sell you anything!
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  kw3b
  I started out in the BBS and demoscene of the 90s. The glory days of computing in my opinion, because of the technical innovation (people were making magic with 7mhz processors) and how the community arranged itself. e.g, some ANSI artists in the artpack scene went on to become legit artists, but nobody was sitting around grinding ANSIs to make millions or raise capital. I think about that era in my own open source work today, I just work on what I enjoy and find interesting and whatever happens happens as long as I can pay the bills.
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  HanClinto
  I resonate with this blog post a lot.I think there is something to be said for monetizing ones' hobbies, but I've recently been taking some forays into this world of "build something amazing and give it away for free" as well. I recently took a very big experimental plunge in this path, and I'm curious how well it will work out for me.Open-source state-of-the-art Magic: The Gathering card identification pipeline:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHieOcmC7DwI used to do this kind of image recognition for a living, but I've been out of the business for a little while now. I had some ideas for a different approach from what I've done in the past and decided to code it up. This version is far better than anything else I've ever done -- especially for scanning against busy backgrounds or with occlusions, and also for noticing fine differences between otherwise difficult-to-distinguish printings.I didn't have any interested customers waiting for this, so -- much like the OP -- decided to create an experiment and release it open source. I'm not opposed to having paths to monetize it (for people who want to license it for closed-source commercial projects), but I'm not trying to commercialize it so much as I would love to see how far we can take it with open-source.I don't know which path I should take with this.The biggest downside is that I feel like I've had a hard time getting people to be as interested in this project as I would have expected -- I believe this truly is the best identification software available (I've built some benchmarks to test it [0]), and maybe the market is just a bit flooded for such things (?), but I suspect that one very strong problem is that if you don't charge for something, then there is a perceived lack of value.Sometimes I wonder if I would have more interest in this project if I _weren't_ trying to give it away.For me, that's been the most negative aspect about releasing this for free so far.[0] - https://blog.hanclin.to/posts/gh-26/
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  advael
  A lot of comments can't help but mention the constant looming threat of potentially permanent destitution that pervades our society. It's increasingly hard to understand the position of people who think that this is a feature, excepting of course those very few with the resources to use that pressure rather than be driven by it
• didgetmaster
  I have taken a road somewhere between FOSS and paid software. I have a data management system that has been in a 'free open beta' for a few years now. Anyone can download it and try it for free.Right now it can be used as a great tool or analyzing data. Feedback is appreciated but not expected. I try to respond to bug fixes and feature requests in a timely manner, but I am not required to do that.If it catches on, I might charge something like $10 for an individual lifetime license. Businesses might be on some kind of subscription.
• collabs
  All my publicly available code on GitHub dot com is available for free for anyone to clone and copy.What is not free is my time, my attention, and support. I don't know how open source maintainers do it but I can't imagine doing it for free.
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  pxtail
  That's completely and absolutely fine, if you are millionaire and/or have other well paid job then.. well done, congratulations and enjoy your newly found hobby.BUT - I'm capable to tinker with my car a bit, to service and repair my bike, to bake a bread - BUT I'm not visiting mechanic shops, bike service shops and bakeries in my city telling owners that they should work for free and give away results of their work.
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  dnnddidiej
  Link to home https://nonogra.ph/
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  keyle
  I love the attitude, but this particular service in 2026 is a little risky.A whole range of content can be posted that can make you liable that you want it or not... from product keys, to internal documents, ...I'll just say this, I love the spirit but this is ballsy. It's just going to be used as another user-paste space.
• parentheses
  With AI it feels writing software that is open is less attractive. It's hard to trust OSS made recently b/c you can tell if someone knows what they're doing and even spent any time on quality. Also, often times people don't reach for software others make (unless it's boring and old stuff, in which case this advice doesn't apply.)
• rvz
  This is the reason why developers here are upset about AI. You can't have it both ways and 'open source' is now weaponized against them.AI will consume OSS software and anyone will be able to clone your closed-source app for free and open source it for 'the community' to avoid paying $1 to maintain it.One thing that is not free is hosting.
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  zabzonk
  As this is FOSS, I don't see why you need the security review (by who, with what qualifications?). Any users can look at the source code and arrange their own reviews as they think necessary.
• tithos
  I always hoped that AI would enable people to take paid software and remake it so they could give it away for free. I started developing websites about 20 years ago back then apart from the big name software and Ide’s. Everything was free. Nowadays everything is a subscription.
• xixixao
  Everyone is commenting on the blog but not the service. I remain skeptical:A. Either it will remain obscure and not see any real useB. (Less likely) It will get abused to hell before it is shutdown.Claims of removing violating content “immediately” seem unrealistic under decent usage, unless that $600 can grow unbounded.
• agentifysh
  i do it here https://github.com/agentify-sh/but have no idea how to get any compensationi just do it because i use these tools and like to share it
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  klinquist
  I just did this for a MacOS+iOS universal app that lets you take quick notes - and keeps them in Markdown files on your Mac's filesystem (so agents can parse them)https://www.github.com/klinquist/notesync
• sinpif
  The final three paragraphs really struck a chord with me. Nicely said. Thanks!
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  zx8080
  Hey author, thank you for blocking text selection on your site!Do you mind describing why?
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  davidcollantes
  > Debian-based Linux (Raspberry Pi OS, KDE Neon, Pop_OS, etc. - not Ubuntu)Why not Ubuntu?
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  sdenton4
  See also: "You don't have to monetize your joy"https://thehabit.co/you-dont-have-to-monetize-your-joy/
• firesteelrain
  I don’t need money but I run some moderately successful open source projects. The users are very demanding.
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  Topology1
  Wish there was a way to send this to every mobile dev who thinks they can (and should) charge a subscription for their hobby app that provides a basic function
• jmclnx
  Still doing that :)A long time ago, I wrote a small MS-DOS program that I gave away for free. Last I heard someone as of 2 or 3 years ago someone was still using it. It was a .com program.
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  msla
  > It cost about $600 USD to release, mostly due to two initial security reviews.Can someone expand on this? I've given software away free and it didn't cost me anything.
• interpol_p
  To repurpose a quote from Walt Disney, I don’t make software to make money, I make money to make more software.I want my hobby project to be my job, because I don’t want to work for someone else. I want creative control, freedom to explore and ship ideas, and financial stability.The only way to get there, that I can see, is to charge for my work.
• 8note
  part 3. dont maintain it. do point in time stuff
• 2001zhaozhao
  even better is to grow with your users, monetize ethically, and make a lot of money anyway simply by being very big and through other routes like enterprise
• johnea
  What a really encouraging article!To see a millennial generations person write about developing software that you want or need, and then let other people run that software.I know these words aren't allowed on HN, but this idea was originally known as the "free software movement".The idea is that individuals and institutions than need or want certain software, develop the software, and then share it, binary and source.You add to this the concept of "copyleft", which requires that any change to the software, that is distributed, must also be shared with others, and you have the GPL license.Businesses, schools, agencies, need email, browsers, accounting, instead of paying for these, what if the people who need them develop than, and share the results?> it really does turn your passion from something that you actively seek out because you enjoy it, to something that you seek out because you want to meet a quota or turn a profit. You're always chasing the next quarter or the next thousand customers.Those changes in motivation that came from monetizing the software are exactly what happens to "free software" that transitions to "open source". Developed for profit, not for use.Again, it's really really encouraging to see a thinking person rediscover this concept.
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  komali2
  I've been doing this at my co-op, just as a kind of, I don't know, break from capitalism or something? Or maybe to practice getting users before finding a monetizable project? Most are rinky dink derp projects to let co-op members play around with whatever stack, or to give potential members a project they can get a commit on (requirement to join), but some I think are kinda useful. Some I use every day, like the calorie one.None of these run ads or make any money so I'm going to share them guiltlessly:https://calories.508.dev just a simple average calorie tracker over months. I couldn't find anything like this online or on the app store.https://travelcards.508.dev Generate printable cards with localized allergies or whatever for trips. Apparently a lot of our wedding guests like this. https://github.com/508-dev/travel-cardshttp://stuff4friends.508.dev A stuff library for your friends to borrow stuff you aren't using. I'm most excited about this one right now because I have so much stuff, and my friends seem to be enjoying borrowing random stuff they wouldn't have just because they can see it and know it's all being tracked. https://github.com/508-dev/friend-library
• prakashrj
  [dead]