Ingrates

Truth be told, most people are selfish ingrates.  It's absolutely amazing how many people EXPECT a free lunch.

Real gratitude for a product of the quality of WWF isn't a pat on the back and a "thanks" - it's showing it by opening up your wallet.

There's a real problem with free software. The problem is that free software often ruins good software by driving good software out of the market because it can't compete. Quality no longer matters quite often.

When something like WWF is given away for free with ads to incentivize people to pay for it, it helps alleviate that problem. When software developers get paid, they can put more time into the product. When they don't get paid, they drop the product.

If people actually donated for software that they use an appreciate, this wouldn't be such a problem.

Anyone who has used a large variety of software can tell you that in general, commercial software (paid for software) is a safer bet than free software and will cost less in the long run. That's entirely due to the developer having a vested interest in the software they produce.

WWF is a freakish anomaly in that it has been free as it is. Along the same lines Apache and PHP are freaks. They are free, but they work and are viable tools in a commercial / production setting.

I certainly can't fault Bruce for introducing ads & a larger banner. If that's what it takes to get more people to donate / pay for a license, then that's what's needed.

Just FYI - as far as I can tell, donations for free software run around the 1 in 3,000 mark. That's FAR below what it takes to make a product commercially viable.

Some of the large OSS or FOSS projects get funding from large corporations to keep them running. e.g. Sun, Novell, etc. Without their support, some of those projects wouldn't be viable as the are right now.

At the end of the day, somebody always pays for the software. Expecting the developer to shoulder the entire burden isn't reasonable.

Given what WWF is, the small price Bruce asks is cheap.

My only request/complaint would be - ASP.NET! I'd love to see that. Especially with a DNN module! I'd pay again for another license for that in a heartbeat!

just make two version.. a lite one for free.. and a full featured one with pay

Edited by the boss - 13 March 2006 at 8:54am

I am sure Bruce has looked at a lot of different approaches to rake some money in for his work here. Now I agree that Google Ads are somewhat intrusive on some sites, what other choice does he have. He could force popups what that would even annoy more.
Given the nature of ASP, feature enabling a product though payment is sort of difficult as people can easily take that out by altering the code. Easier in .net, he would not have to relase source code unless you pay.

I say screw the ads, as it creates a ugly forum, and charge for the forum already!

Even if it was $10 a copy it sure would weed out 99% of the 6 year olds that dont listen, post in the wrong forum, ask questions that have been answered 1000x before, people that only want free stuff and dont care about donating, and it would make -boRg- quit his day job and finish v20 of WebWizForums already