From: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@invweb.net>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 21:38:57 +0800
To: igor@Algebra.COM (Igor)
Subject: Re: Deriving economic profits from writing FREE software?
In-Reply-To: <slrn6c0bra.sic.igor@manifold.algebra.com>
Message-ID: <199801171351.IAA05548@users.invweb.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In <slrn6c0bra.sic.igor@manifold.algebra.com>, on 01/16/98 
   at 10:11 PM, igor@algebra.com (Igor) said:

>Hi,

>At my leisure, I write free software. One of these programs is the usenet
>moderation bot STUMP. Right now I am writing another free program. I feel
>perfectly comfortable with the idea that I will not CHARGE money for
>these programs; for one, I am a beneficiary of a multitude of excellent
>free programs written by others, and just as well i realize that selling
>them  would be more of a hassle than it is worth.

>My another pet idea is that programming is poetry, and therefore a person
>who only writes commercial software is almost surely going to lose
>whatever gift in programming that he had from God.

>However, aside from the psychic benefits, I would like to somehow derive
>an economic profit from being a freeware author. So far, I feel that the
>status of the author of a popular package does sound good on a resume,
>but it is as far as I could get.

>Does anyone else feel the same way? Has anybody come up with a way to 
>cash in on the free programs that he writes? 

Not much. Biggest boost from writting free software (other than the fact
of having the software) is to one's reputation capital. If one was
intrested in entering into a new field of programming (commercially)
having a few programs under one's belt never hurts.

Shareware is not a bad alternative. Thoses who like your programs and are
intrested in supporting your efforts are usally willing to spend a couple
of bucks. I wouldn't plan on quitting your day job but if your code is
popular it can help offset expences.

Another approach is to do what Phil did with PGP. Freeware to individules
and pay for business use. This depends on whether there is a business need
for your programs or not.

Get a job at a University. :)

If you really had somthing intresting that you were planning on doing you
may be able to get some type of research grant.

I think that you find that most freeware/shareware authors hold down a 9
to 5 job to pay the bills and write their code on the side.

- -- 
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
William H. Geiger III  http://users.invweb.net/~whgiii
Geiger Consulting    Cooking With Warp 4.0

Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice
PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail.
OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://users.invweb.net/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html                        
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
 
Tag-O-Matic: If at first you don't succeed, work for Microsoft.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3a-sha1
Charset: cp850
Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000

iQCVAwUBNMCl649Co1n+aLhhAQGlvgP/dNtLV0A/qvzZZrXHYrNbqW3iAbRLPcbt
ZyQuW0LHKr750o0cAiLW54O+h/3OtnA2BOLejuDoEnipkOY3QCrAshUCeWQoZw71
viw4hzhDIrXk/T6rhHM7y/GfLY8aYyNQ3pCK+Tb/L+uIxWakufPW0DimsMYgyA0K
PNwHJGYgEro=
=uCx1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----