[Ardour-Dev] funding priorities

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

schoappied wrote:
> Quentin Harley wrote:
>> schoappied wrote:
>>> Florian Faber wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Not a good idea. GPL is GPL stays GPL.
>>>>   
>>> The makers of the software having the right to release their software
>>> with the license they want...
>>
>> You are missing the whole point.  It is clear that you spent too much
>> time selling software. 
> And such reactions is part of the problem Linux and Ardour has...
> Sometimes very negative and hostile statements  against people... who
> just want to help here!
> 
> I'm not been selling any software in the past, I'm just a humble Ardour
> donator, trying to help a but and these kind of reactions does me want
> to quit supporting the project any longer...

don't take it personally. but it's a fact that a number of measures
suggested in this and related threads are about to throw the child out
with the bathwater (does that figure of speech work in english?)

i'm very happy that paul has made it very clear that ardour will stay
GPL and that no user interface crippling or nagware features will creep in.
i know those suggestions are meant well, but as they say, the road to
redmond is paved with good intentions...

any measures to ensure ardour's financial well-being must first and
foremost ensure the well-being of the community around it. pissing off
people by adding nag screens or creating second-class citizen downloads
will cause a fork faster than you can say "oh shit". and that is a great
strength of the GPL in particular. i welcome paul's insight to have
chosen such a license for his work (he has effectively handed control to
everybody), but it does mean that a large part of common business logic
does not apply to ardour, and that community aspects will always play a
role.

for now, i will keep promoting the idea of a truly free DAW to my
friends, and all the benefits like IRC communication with fellow users
and developers, and i will try to get them to subscribe.
but freedom and a nice and vibrant community is a key selling point. if
i subscribe to ardour for 10$ a month, after 2 years, i could buy a
commercial product for that money. i'll only keep subscribing if i'm
interested in the freedom and the nice community around it (which is
something that you can't get from closed-source vendors, no matter how
much you are prepared to pay).

best,

jörn




-- 
Jörn Nettingsmeier

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Audio and event engineer
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nettings at stackingdwarves.net
+49 177 7937487