Freeware as a path to Success
Ok, so Freeware was a misnomer. I’m not really talking about totally free software . . I’m talking about software that starts as free, and then asks for dontations to continue and expand. It’s called Donationware. This is not to be confused with Open Source software, which is software code given away with the express idea that whoever adds to the software will make those additions available to everyone else, and put back into the community.
There’s a fundemental problem with the Open Source Software movement, a dirty little secret that no one likes to talk about. Open Source software is rife with intellectual propety theft.
In my opinion, the basis for industry wide Open Source really started with Linux, and as the story goes, Linus Torvalds was in love with the Unix operating system and decided to reverse engineer the whole thing. . .every single line of code was written from scratch so they say. But that throws out the value of the design work. Awk and Grep work a certain way by design. Does that design have any value? Perhaps no code was taken, but the data formats, structure, functionally, and syntax were all copied. As a software architect, I know first hand how much time goes into deciding these things. In fact, it is the correct planning, design, and architecture that allows a system to grow and stand the test of time. This design and architecture was ripped-off wholesale . . . and the original engineers who created these tools have been forgotten (tip of the hat to the real creator of Grep, Ken Thompson , who along with Dennis Ritchie really created Unix. They didn’t do it for free either.
So the design, function, metaphore, and workflow of a software product are the defining characteristics, but this is exactly what is ‘copied’ by the Open Source movement for the vast bulk of their offerings. For example, the ‘Lasso’ image manipulation effect was invented and belongs to Adobe/, not the people at GIMP, but there it is in the GIMP toolbox, along with a whole slew of other Adobe patented technologies.
The ‘Code’ is only part of the story, and the Open Source Movement seems to think that design and architecture just fall from the sky like a soft spring rain. . . . if only it were so.
So that brings us back to Dontationware . . . giving away software but expecting that satisfied users will pay. This is like those “Honor Snack” systems that some people use, but putting a coin box next to some packaged snacks or cans of soda, and those that take, pay. Do such systems actually work? The answer depends on the culture of the people involved. ”Anti-social” type cultures might not work, as people might think that as they take, they don’t really need to pay, or are above paying. ”Social” cultures, where the people understand that they need to work together, do in fact work as the people will pay as they take. So this calls into question, what kind of culture are we living in today? What is the current environment like for tying to make a living based on Donationware?
There are other ways to use Freeware/Donationware to boot-strap success that don’t involve getting paid for the software today, but rather involve dominating a market niche with the hopes of capitalizing on it in the future. Some have done this, some have failed. There are a whole range of Internet based applications that are free to use, and become increasingly important to the user, most notably the Social Networking phenomenon. The creators of these platforms have walked away with millions, but their companies have yet to turn a dime of profit. Can that continue indefinately? Who pays for the servers? Who pays for the bandwidth? Who pays for the small army of developers? It’s not the market, so who is it?
It’s the Investors . . . that’s who.
Tags: social media, Open Source Software, Freeware, Donationware, Intellectual Property
