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Comment by kurd_debuggr | Hacker News Reader

There is a pricetag that comes with the software, which is definitely not in line with the typical javascript ideology, in my opinon.

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which is definitely not in line with the typical hipster ideology, in my opinon.

FTFY.

Seriously, I don't get it.

I'm against showing banners in my app ;)

Why not open source it like most other JS tools? You've built on top of other open-source such as node.js. Just a matter of good citizenship in the JS community.

Why the fuck is this community so against indie developers from monetizing their desktop software? Nobody complains when SAAS products or mobile apps are monetized. Hypocrisy is astounding here.

Why are you so against people giving their opinions? It doesn't read like they are saying that free and open source is the only path, just that they would prefer that it was.

Because a community backlash might make some developers think twice before building something awesome like this.

Yeah, I've got to agree with the others here. There's nothing inherent with the JS community that dictates a good actor should automatically open source something they've done. He's free to assign whatever exchange of value he wants for the work that he's done, just as everyone else is free to choose whether they want to give the amount he's chosen in exchange for access to the software.

This tool has taken quite a lot of my time, and i though i'd try an actual business model for a change.

A random suggestion, then: perhaps try selling it for a few months, and if the number of sales starts to tail off and you still feel uncompensated, set a fundraising goal at which you'd release it open source?

As others said, I'm more interested in donating (and helping to persuade others to) to make it available for everyone than I am in buying a copy.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tern-intelligent-javascrip... is an example of successfully raising money for a javascript tool, although in that case the money was raised before the work was finished.

I certainly appreciate that. But also, open source and business models are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps you can open source the core code and then charge for support or extensions, like many others do with Linux, Apache, etc.

Plus, if you have more people contributing changes/additions, you might have less of a workload.

One last question for you: if I pay, do I get the source that I can tinker with/extend, or is it in a minified/obfuscated format?

No i left the code unminified/unobfuscated on purpose. If you paid for it you get the freedom to hack on it if you want.

The code is not minified or obfuscated.

Completely agree with you. It's incredible good priced, and the bitcoin payment option... just great :)

I bought it just a few hours ago, works excellent.

I would gladly donate $20+ for this if it does what you show it doing, but I feel wrong /paying/ $14 to try it.

Since its all JS its hard to make a try before you buy experience.

Right, I'm not saying that you should either. Just an observation of my own reaction.

Good citizenship = giving away your hard work for free?

Good grief.

This debugger is unlike anything i've ever seen. Not charging for it would be plain stupid. Reverse debuggers for other languages usually cost tons.

Visual Studio Ultimate with Intellitrace costs a lot, depending on who you ask.

Well maybe it's a new trend for the better then.

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