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Comment by Geee | Hacker News Reader

This is just incredible beyond imagination. I don't think even the author realizes this. I don't think the marketing copy catches the real potential of this thing.

This makes it easy for developers to distribute cloud apps without having to manage users, billing, hosting, security or any of that SaaS boilerplate. Just code the app and distribute it for your users. This changes everything.

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Of course, the users probably won't pay and you can't use ads, so there may not be much business here.

> Of course, the users probably won't pay and you can't use ads, so there may not be much business here.

No ads? Awesome!

No incentive other than 'build something cool?' Awesome!

No defective by design? Awesome!

Who cares about business? It's a means to an end, nothing more. If we can get the end without the business, the paperwork, the ads, the politics - i say good riddance.

Most software we use is either proprietary and uses ads/licenses/etc to make money. Successful open source software (as in what non-technical people use) seems to be at the core of something that generates revenue (Linux for instance). No ?

Seems like a perfect fit for any subscription model. Sandbox the corporation can figure out a model for divvying the revenue from customers between the app developer and whatever fees they want to charge for hosting. And other companies could provide hosting, as well.

(Unless I'm misunderstanding the model...?)

Sandstorm itself is free and hosting is low-margin enough that there shouldn't be anything left to pay app developers (app.net is exploring this business model, though). Also see the backlash at Adobe's software rental business model.

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