13 Dec
2007
13 Dec
'07
7:57 p.m.
On Thu, 2007-12-13 at 20:12 +0100, Pieter Palmers wrote:
The problem with hobby-projects is that users are
really dependent on
the goodwill of the hobbyist. If the hobbyist doesn't feel like
supporting or developing some piece of software anymore, the user is
screwed. That's not very professional (<<< !!inflammable term alert!!).
(ahem)
Some traditional counter-arguments:
* "When a company stops selling/supporting the user is also screwed".
True, but if the 'hobbyist' would have to pay his bills with money from
his users, the 'stop support' decision gets a whole new dimension. If a
company pulls this off too often, they are out of business in no time.
Or you end up buying an expensive upgrade
* "The user (or community) has the source and
hence development can go
on". How realistic is this? I've been lurking on the hydrogen
development list for quite some time now, and when Allesandro (Comix)
stopped actively developing the complete project stalled. OTOH, I'm also
lurking on the Mixxx list, and in that case some new people have
continued the work.
Well, Sean Bolton stopped developing Xsynth-DSSI, and I took it to some
pretty strange places after that. It's pretty easy to get your head
around.
Gordon