Ask HN: Fill a niche with open source of a for-profit product?
I was thinking of making an open-source project and scratch my own itch, and make it available for others.
It occurred to me that people in this niche -- most who work as hobbyists, although there are some professionals -- regularly spend money on materials, so there might be a money-making opportunity here.
Some downsides, though, to attacking it as a money-making opportunity: - open-source projects feel collaborative while money-making opportunities seem to be antagonistic [in broad strokes, anyway] - while I'm a fine coder, I have poorly developed business, marketing, and sales skills - people expect real support for something they've paid for, even if they only pay a dollar; that expectation is different for free software (and, more to the point, I don't know that I can put in enough time to support it to that level) - conceivably I could make the product open-source and for sale; I just think that'd deter people from contributing (and I'd probably need a thing for them to sign before helping out, which I know for a fact deters people) - the audience is smaller, much like far fewer people will try out a paid game than will try a free-to-play game
Some upsides: - some people are more comfortable getting software through stores than downloading something off of the internet, and, who knows, may be willing to pay
I hear the words "why not both" in my head, but I'm not sure how to pull that off.
Anyways, I'm just putting this out here to ask for some advice.