Here’s something I’d like to see more of: UberWriter is free (open source, GPL3), yet by default if you go to install it you’ll have to pay $5. The old “free as in freedom of speech” rather than “free as in free beer”.
From the creator’s point of view, “Free as in speech” means several things:
- The project is open to collaboration – if you have something to add, please do!
- If you see a different future for this project than I do, you don’t have to ask my permission. You can build on what I’ve started and do something new and different. I may or may not want what to merge your changes back in.
- If you’re not someone that’s likely to pay me money (you have a different native language, you live in an area I can’t sell to, you’re don’t have enough money…) then that’s okay, feel free to take what I’ve done anyway and see if you can build on it.
- If you’re really poor (developing world, unfunded startup, student) then you can still use the software and pay it back (or pay it forward) later. I’m just glad people are using (and enjoying) something I’ve made.
- If you’re worried about security, you can know exactly what your software is doing by getting a developer to audit the code. I promise I’m not working for your corrupt government.
- If I ever close shop and discontinue the product, you can keep using it, without having to worry about where to get new copies. Feel free to make new copies, or to hire a developer to maintain it, even to release your own version. I promise not to get angry.
But from the creator’s point of view, “free as in beer” has several negative implications:
- I don’t have a strong plan to make money off this, so it will remain a side-project or a hobby. I might love it, but I’ll never give it the time, money and support it needs to be amazing.
- I have to pay my bills. So the work I do that pays bills will always be more important than the work I do for this project.
Commercial projects that succeed (especially software projects) often have a founder who is hugely passionate about it, and absolutely stoked that they get to work on their passion as their full time job. For many open source developers, this isn’t a reality.
So what if you want to balance those two things:
- Create, invent, make art. And give it away to the world in the most generous, considerate way possible.
- Make money so that I can continue to develop this, perfecting it and supporting it and giving it every opportunity to succeed.
Well, that’s what UberWriter is doing. It has all the same freedoms as “free as in speech”. And if you really don’t want to pay for it, you can find ways to get it for free, and that’s allowed too, it’s not illegal and it won’t make the creator cry. But, if you want to get it the easiest way, and you want to support the developer, it’s $5.
I hope he does well, makes some money, maybe even is able to make it his main job – so that he is empowered to make some good software become really great software. And I hope to see more people balance this act of being generous with earning a living… myself included.
