Indie Software Dev

[LD 'Gus' Landis]

Dear Jon,

  I think you are most likely wrong (thinking you
  cannot sell in a FOSS world).

  Re: your question of "would anybody buy?"
  It all depends on if the app is worth it for me.
  I have purchased products for Linux in the past.

  Unfortunately for you (your stated market), there
  is not much missing (for me) from the standard
  CentOS/Ubuntu repositories and other sources
  that I feel I need.

  For the most part, I am willing to wait for a FOSS
  solution unless it is something critical for my needs.

  If critical to my needs, I may just write it myself,
  scratching my itch, not necessarily wanting to grow
  to be generally useful.

  You should probably figure out a different marketing
  approach.  Sell support services (installation, configuration,
  hosting, education, etc) from which you are paid.

  Generally software (like yours? I don't know what your
  app is) is like a ream of blank paper... it only gets value
  by what is put on the blank pages.

  You can make money in other ways than selling licenses.

  Be creative in that way, and you'll succeed. I have. (But
  you'll have to keep "doing" to get money... but I'll bet you
  will enjoy it).

Cheers,
  --ldl


On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Jon Buys <jonbuys at me.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I posted this on the Ubuntu Forums, and didn't get a whole lot of feedback, so I thought I'd try this mailing list.
>
> I'm launching a commercial software business. I'm targeting the Mac right now, but I am curious to find out how this would be received by the Linux community. I have an ongoing conversation with a friend of mine about this, and I think that the free and open culture surrounding Linux would mean that there is no market for an indie dev to go after. He thinks that the market is here, am I wrong?
>
> Would anyone buy a $20 app on Linux?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jon
>
>
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