Something of a mini-uproar in my email box and instant messager.
Why'd you do it? Why are you giving away the software you work so
diligently on?
It's actually not as complicated as one would think...
I'm busy, very very busy. I'm working full time and then some on
various projects and jobs, I'm building a new house, I'm also finishing
up my MBA, and most importantly I have my wife and newborn son to think
about. The cold hard fact of the matter is that for me to pursue
Easy Assets the way it deserves, I would have to take time out of the
above, which at this point I'm not willing to do.
In the meantime, there are tons of companies out there that have little
or no asset management going on that are flushing money down the
toilet. So yeah, I feel a sense of fiscal responsibility to help
out with this. So there is some genuine good karma to this move.
The second is my duty to the coding and ISV community. I'm pretty
active on my blog talking about my experiences with my business and
also fairly active on the Joel On Software forum. One thing I've
noticed as a recurring theme question is "How viable is open source
software?". Can you really make any money releasing your source
code into the wild? Are there really users and businesses out
there that are willing to donate a fair dollar to a free open source
project? How successful can you be selling customizations,
hosting, and support contracts for a free product? People go
round and round about this with no clear answers. Many products
like OS's and browsers like Firefox do quite nicely, but what about the
applications that run on them? Not only this, but how about
applications not in the FOSS world, but in the Microsoft for-profit
world?
Well, I hope to provide you all with an answer to these
questions. I'm willing to give up my stake in a possibly
profitable venture to experiment with the FOSS model and see if I
really can generate any worthwhile revenue or whether my instincts are
right and the FOSS community is a bunch of hippies blowing hot air up
our collective butts. I'll be reporting a status update on Easy
Assets from time to time to report donations received,
contracts/hosting/customizations sold, and community code submissions
received. If a ton of people download the software and no one
gives me a dime, you'll be the first to know. If I'm wildly
successful you'll also be the first to know. In my small way, I
hope to help put this debate to rest. I've thrown the glove down,
it's time for the community to put up or shut up!
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