2016-06-26, 17:46:41
(This post was last modified: 2016-06-27, 13:31:24 by ecocomputing.)
Up untill now, all linux programs were FOSS (free and open source).
Something like windows is proprietary and closed-source, which most people don't want. However, since there's money to be made by various people just because it isn't free, the whole concept works much better, and there are much more people developing for it and thus there are also more people using this instead of any linux distro (as it's hence better supported).
I've been thinking on this a long time, and really what we need is to make it rewarding for the developer which is working on specific linux distro's (like TAZ), a bit like the free-to-play business model with games. So, still free and open-source (FOSS), but with a twist.
With the altered business model, we need to keep the distro free to download/use, yet make it financially rewarding for developers to create those packages that don't yet exist for slitaz-based distro's (on-demand packages). In this business model, it's mainly the person that actually puts up the request that will often do a donation (if he's satisfied and wishes to support the developer), whereas the rest of the linux distro users take advantage of the work executed. That said, they're off course also free to do donations to developers, even if they haven't put up/received any packages/package requests. Also, if there are several people wanting a same package made, they can all do a (smaller) donation as well. Due to the latter, and the fact that different users will only want specific, different, packages made (and are willing to do donations on behalf of them), the expenditure on the donations will be sufficiently spread over the entire linux distro community (rather than having to rely on only a few donors to financially support the package development).
Something like windows is proprietary and closed-source, which most people don't want. However, since there's money to be made by various people just because it isn't free, the whole concept works much better, and there are much more people developing for it and thus there are also more people using this instead of any linux distro (as it's hence better supported).
I've been thinking on this a long time, and really what we need is to make it rewarding for the developer which is working on specific linux distro's (like TAZ), a bit like the free-to-play business model with games. So, still free and open-source (FOSS), but with a twist.
With the altered business model, we need to keep the distro free to download/use, yet make it financially rewarding for developers to create those packages that don't yet exist for slitaz-based distro's (on-demand packages). In this business model, it's mainly the person that actually puts up the request that will often do a donation (if he's satisfied and wishes to support the developer), whereas the rest of the linux distro users take advantage of the work executed. That said, they're off course also free to do donations to developers, even if they haven't put up/received any packages/package requests. Also, if there are several people wanting a same package made, they can all do a (smaller) donation as well. Due to the latter, and the fact that different users will only want specific, different, packages made (and are willing to do donations on behalf of them), the expenditure on the donations will be sufficiently spread over the entire linux distro community (rather than having to rely on only a few donors to financially support the package development).
