[LAU] How can we convert money to fixing bugs in software?

[Alexandre Prokoudine]

On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Charles Henry wrote:

> Also, you never know how long you'll spend working on a problem, until
> you actually do it.

Not only that. It's also quite possible that users will never collect
the amount of money required to implement or fix something.

Ardour still has $1375 proposed by users for implementing MIDI
editing. That's after 2 related GSoC projects $4500 worth each (for
the student) and barely estimatable years of work by other developers
(I'd say +$50K at the very least).

AAF/OMG support is next with mere $505 proposed by users. I'd say, the
real estimation would be ten times as much for an experienced U.S.
based programmer, and that would only cover a very basic support with
probably not much testing.

Of course, the environment has changed a lot since this initiative was
started. Fetching 5K-20K funds for an open source project (even more
for games) has become quite possible. Bu the prerequisite for that is
decent media coverage.

> <puts on his devil's advocate hat>  Suppose I write a potentially
> useful software, and then leave several bugs until people start
> funding it.  Then, rake in the dough and fix the bugs (I already know)
> in record time.  It changes the incentive whether and how to create
> software.  </puts on his devil's advocate hat>

That only works if people give a damn about your software :)

Alexandre Prokoudine
http://libregraphicsworld.org