Hacker News Reader

Comment by Symbiote | Hacker News Reader

We have different hobbies, but as a supporter of free software and a developer who works on open source code 99% of the time, I try and use open source apps as much as possible.

I recognise though that there are whole categories of app that need real money, for staff or servers (dating, online gaming).

View on HN

I think there's just not really a way for high quality, user facing applications to be open source. And when you download free of charge proprietary apps, more often than not you're giving up your data/privacy as compensation.

There are plenty of really great, free software applications: VLC, Handbrake, Audacity, etc. But most of the free software world is not end user applications. It's the OS, HTTP server, and other infrastructure software. The software that is open source is the software that big companies need, but it's not their main product. So they can justify paying employees to contribute to it, and get the patches upstreamed.

I would definitely prefer my apps like Omnifocus or Overcast to open source. But even setting aside the financial viability, running an open source project opens you up to a million people flooding you with patch requests and flame wars. If you're developing a high quality app with opinionated UX and design, that's the last thing you want.

If a developer open sourced their application but still charged for the binary on the App Store, would you pay for it?

Most open source enthusiasts get apps from fdroid which does not support paid apps but it does have a donate button on the page. I only use open source and I have donated to the apps I use most.

Yeah. If I don't expect to make changes to the application and only act as a consumer, then it makes more sense economically for me to pay so I can download it and get updates without having to compile it and load it on my device every time.

Also, isn't it nice to help developers that make nice applications, especially when they offer their apps for a reasonable price?

100% yes. We need more nice applications made by indie developers and small agencies. Apps that charge a couple of dollars, or even a modest subscription fee, and don’t harvest their users data, record their screens for marketing purposes, or run the microphone to build an advertising profile.

I don’t understand how, on a forum full of people who build software for a living, there can be so much opposition to this idea.

That's a lot more work on the developer to do that. They're going to get a million unwanted pull requests, code bike shedding, and issues raised. And they're also going to get dozens of people putting their own copies of the same app on the store to try to undercut them.

So why would any sane developer do that? Getting people to spend a few dollars on an app is already no easy feat. Most users think a five dollar app is outrageously expensive.

Do you also take care that upstream isn't forced to focus somewhere else to actually pay their bills?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com