Paying for free software

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/482493120/Calvin--Hobbes-change-my-mind

Here you go sir. Just for future reference.

Paint.net

Ooooh boy... This is Steven Crowder. Not only has he shown multiple times to hold far right views and platforming people who identify as white supremacists (most notably Stefan Malynuex and the guy who founded the proud boys) he has also been shown on camera abusing his wife.

He is anti-semitic, anti-abortion, anti-divorce (specifically so he can control his wife more), and very pro-gun and pro-white people.

Other than that he's just another great example of a failed entertainer turning to the right wing griftiverse in order to make money.

What a fucking loser...

He's a right-wing podcaster and meatspace video troll.

His sole piece of merchandise reads "Socialism is for F*gs." Verbatim.

He claims it says "figs."

Photopea - free browser Photoshop

I mean, we are talking free software here, so how about one posted to Lemmy the other day: https://github.com/Fredolx/meme-maker

steven crowder, a far-right talking head who moves in the same circles as Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, etc. if rush limbaugh was vader then crowder is kylo ren.

I know you weren't asking me, but to chime in, it's safer to say that the circumstances of memeing are actually way more complex than we give credit. I'd argue that it's rarely the case that a meme is just a meme. Situations where an event or a person becomes a meme can be totally misinterpreted, reinterpreted or otherwise change from reality. Memes are used tools, many times as propaganda, and who is in a meme possibly, does have an effect. Memeing is actually a big complex part of the human experience! Especially since proliferation of the internet.

Anyway, it's interesting to think about.

Tbf, of all unfair platforms, steam is one of the fairest. Humane at least.

Ironically, Steam is one of the platforms with the most free games, but yes, I hate it with all my heart, since many years ago I bought the game Portal on CD, to realize that it required a Steam account to be able to play it. Furthermore, the same thing happens with the other games they provide, adding that they require downloading the client, which is loaded along with the game, unnecessarily spending resources, apart from the fact that it is slow as hell to open. With GOG more of the same, apart from the fact that it bores you with spam emails, the worst EPIC, which also requires complete personal data for registration. I miss the old days, when you went to the store, bought the game CD and in peace.

thanks. I forgot about that. But I'd like to add, that this models kind of feels like "donations with extra steps" to me. i.e. you can get it for free, but you choose to pay the developer even though you have to.

The best example that comes to mind is Ardour, a FOSS digital audio workstation that charges for binaries. Their FAQ says

If you want the convenience of using our ready-to-run version and/or for support from Ardour developers and experienced users, we ask that you pay something for this.

If you don't want to pay for a ready-to-run version, then you'll need to get the source code and build it yourself. We do not provide assistance with this process and particularly on Windows and macOS this can be challenging and take a long time. Also, for Windows, there are no instructions.

It’s a bit mixed in with the “pay for support” model, since you’re basically on your own if you build it yourself. Which probably makes support a lot easier, since there are fewer supported configurations. This seems like a pretty workable model for something as complex as Ardour, but idk how well it would work for simpler projects.

think it also helps that Ardor is used directly by individual users, and its proprietary competitors are often quite expensive. If you’re making something that already has a lot of “free as in beer” competition, this may be harder to pull off.

Yeah def not enough. It's funny how governments and companies are willing to pay overpriced proprietary software that even comes with no or horrible support, but when they use OSS they hardly contribute and sometimes even get great support via github. But sometimes that's also the other way around. You pay for expensive license and get shitty support even if it's OSS. Looking at you Teleport

As European, thatvis not true in my case! (I get funded by them)

Eight fucking years of fascists' jeering faces every god-damn day is more than enough, thanks very much.

They said "free" and I elected to interpret that in the way that allowed me to make a little joke

WinRaR is not in prison, so it's free

That is most likely going to generate less revenue than promoting donations, or a comparable amount at best. WinRAR is the meme example.

From a PR and marketing perspective, if I wanted to maximize my revenue as a single developer I would set up a Patreon or encourage recurring donations through the software by providing bragging rights stuff (merch, insider access, early access to unfinished builds and so on). Single mandatory payments simply reproduce the piracy/license access of commercial software and shaming people into paying without coercion just makes you seem less appealing to people who would donate anyway.

Grayjay is proprietary software. The license doesn't allow you to for example edit its source code: https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay/-/blob/master/LICENSE

So it's denying you at least one of the 4 essential freedoms.

The game Mindustry is one example.

Yes. And as you can see it has 14k reviews on steam while factorio has 141k reviews.

It's also a game, so there is no productivity gain or loss associated with it. There is no on call IT support, but you also don't need any and if something breaks, you lose nothing except the ability to play THIS game for a short while. It's not a... webserver you run your online shop through where every hour of downtime costs you X hundreds of euros or dollars.

The game was also made by what looks like one guy. It's not, you know libre office. With hundreds and thousands of contributors and a huge problem of how to distribute the money.

Of course you're allowed to distribute it. And of course you're allowed to charge for it. But realistically, nearly nobody would use it.

I have started by at least supporting game developers on Steam.

Steam puts DRM in games and requires proprietary software (the Steam client), so you should consider not buying there at all. GOG's client is also proprietary, but its optional and there is a free alternative called Heroic Games Launcher. Itch.io has a libre client (also optional). As far as I know games on those two platforms are DRM-free.