Re: [libreplanet-discuss] [fossil-users] [OT] Who's interested in project management & collaboration tools? And...

[Zygo Blaxell]

On Tue, Aug 07, 2012 at 11:18:53AM -0700, Mark Holmquist wrote:
> On 12-08-06 05:33 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> >>Supported by the fact that your beta/alpha users (and release users?
> >>must be a typo?) will only have access to the source code if they pay
> >>you extra. That's not how free software works, I'm sorry to break it
> >>to you.
> >>
> >I've got to have some kinds of incentives to raise money!  I'm going
> >with a limited release model of both object and source - can't quite see
> >releasing to the world until I've gone through a couple of revs.  Of
> >course, with a GPL, anybody who gets the alpha or beta code will be free
> >to redistribute.
> 
> If you're ignoring users' digital freedom simply because you want to
> make money, take your advertising somewhere else, because this is
> clearly not the place for it. I'm sure there are a lot of free
> software mailing lists where people straight up wouldn't care, but
> this is not one of them.
> 
> Of course, maybe I've misunderstood the purpose of this list. If so,
> I invite dissent!

Freedom is not necessarily incompatible with charging a fee for access
to a distribution service that happens to contain specific GPLed content,
assuming that's what Miles meant by "limited release."

For this particular kind of software, though, would it not make more
sense to offer contributors some number of hours of professional support
service, site integration, or even server hosting (if that's necessary
or helpful)?  Serious users of a project management tool are using the
tool to coordinate other people's activities to achieve a goal within
a deadline *by definition*.  Those users may be willing to pay for
assurance that at least one contractor with skill and domain knowledge
(and who is _not_ already committed to other tasks, perhaps by the
very same project management tool!) will be available to help keep it
all working as advertised when it's crunch time, or help recover from
various disaster scenarios.

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