I have been struggling for awhile. I’m trying to find my position on the shareware vs. freeware vs. open-source vs. commercial debate. There is so much to discuss in this realm. Especially since we are on a Mac. Windows, the OS of commercial crap. Linux, the OS of open-source greatness. Mac, the OS of beautiful shareware UIs. This battle is especially difficult for me to choose which side to favor, which type of license to support. I am a user. I am a developer.

I am a user
What do I mean by this? As a user, I want free. Free. Free. Free. Gimme. Gimme. Gimme. By the way, when I mean free in the mind of a user, I mean free in cost. Not free in the GNU GPL sense. If I’m a user, I’m not a programmer so open-source doesn’t matter to me. Basically, I want either freeware or open-source apps, but I have no preference to either. Free software is great for many reasons. I hate having a computer I just payed plus of 2 grand for and then not have anything to do on it. Yes, Apple does include a fair share of programs but that’s not enough. Your computer is only as good as the apps on it. So off to MacUpdate. When I get there I’m bombarded with software. Wow look at all these great tools. Great games. Great apps. But wait. What does this shareware thing mean? Damn. All these cool things, these apps that do wonderful functions like OmniOutliner, LaunchBar, and Transmit. I need to pay for all of them. And frankly a lot of them are not cheap. For the above apps I have to pay $40, $20, and $30. 90 bucks for just 3 apps. That’s insane. Seriously. I have hundreds of apps, I cannot afford to pay this type of cash for every single app I run. So I scour the web for freeware apps. These typically are of less quality with less support unless you find a great provider (may I suggest OpenSoft) that offers great support and great products for free. As a user I feel that I need software to work on my computer, and I should be entitled to some software to use without the hassle of buying and spending large amounts. Now, I don’t expect Omni-like software from free companies, but when every publisher of software charges money (especially the pointless ones who sell the apps for 5 bucks) it really annoys me. Whatever happened to doing something for your fellow man, to quote Basil Fawlty? We are a community. A fragile Mac community. We need each other. We need a group mentality. Provide your app for free and then enjoy the benefit of enjoying other developers’ apps for free. Make sense? It does to me. I give out free software, open-sourced in fact. What do I hope for in return? The ability to use my Mac like everyone else, with great apps without tremendous cost.

I am a developer
And yet as a developer, I also favor shareware. Why do I support both? Well, I guess I’m a hypocrite. I want free apps, but I also want an industry where I can make lots of money in. I want. I take. Greed. I apologize, but I want to make a living too. So I am placed in an awkward position. I want to enjoy my Mac with great software tools and applications, yet I want to make money by other people buying my apps. A real predicament. I can’t decide. It truly is tough. I want to be generous. I really like making open-source software. Just look at the potential: Adium. Its nice to give back to the community. Give something back. That’s it. We need shareware. We also need freeware/open-source. Our computer society depends on both. We need shareware to give a cause to the development in software. Without monetary goal, few have intentions of dedicating their lives to the field. Shareware allows people to have a fundamental reason to get into programming. There is money to be made. We also depend on freeware. Freeware builds customers in two ways. One, it brings people to the platform. People come to working on computers because of the software, so let’s give them something. Also, a company that provides freeware and shareware generates the most profit (and good karma). They provide for their community and offer their gift in the way of freeware. They attract users through this method as well as showing the buyer that this developer is dedicated to the community. With their shareware apps they are able to maintain lives, jobs, families. And then they make more freeware. Then more shareware. Then more money. Repeat.

Although I haven’t solved my debate, I leave you with a positive progression. Let us (as developers) give to our community. Give some form of token that acknowledges that we care about you as users. We want you to enjoy your computer experience. Then also create shareware to help stay alive. You aren’t a bad guy because you give to the users for free, but you also aren’t dooming yourself to failure because you have a steady income from shareware sales.

I hope this provides some (maybe small) insight into possible development choices.

Until next time,
-Dustin