Bill Stewart wrote:
At 10:11 PM 1/16/98 -0600, Igor wrote:
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?
There's the standard shareware model - ask for $25. There's the Cygnus model - charge money for support. There's the Netscape/McAfee/etc. model - free for personal use, charge money to companies that use it. There's the Eudora model - basic version free, bells&whistles extra. There's the advertising-banner model - the software/service is free, but usage hits an advertising banner in some way that filters money back to you.
There's the Intel model - give away software to sell new hardware. There's the Linus Torvalds model - people pay you to speak at conferences. There's the w3c model - pay money if you want it now, or wait and get it for free next month. There's the book model - give away the software and sell the documentation. There's the PGP model - give it away until it becomes popular, then sell it. ...and then there's the Microsoft model - give away 'free' software and charge for the OS to run it...