Opensource filePro Project

[Fairlight]

Y'all catch dis heeyah?  Jose Lerebours been jivin' 'bout like:
> I believe that they can make money in many ways:
> 1. Donations from a potentially super large community

You're joking, right?  There are only two things I've donated to over the
years that weren't mandatory fee items...  I donated to the original Winamp
before they started demanding I buy it -again- at 5.x and nevermind my
original donation, and I just donated to my Call of Duty 4 clan for server
upkeep/rentals.

Good luck floating the boat on donations.  If people don't have to donate
financially, usually 99.9% of them won't.  Where things should balance out
to to -everyone- giving $1 or $5 a month, you get 45,000 deadbeats and about
15 people forking out $5-20/mo--if you're lucky.  Trust me, I ran a
donation-funded website for six years--a pair of them, actually.  Those
people had a -vested interest- in making that float, and it was hell to
keep it alive as long as we did.

Two questions:

Do you use FlashGot with Firefox and if so, have you donated?
Do you use FireFTP with Firefox and if so, have you donated?  

I use both, I haven't donated.  Donations are made by those that have money
to burn.  That discounts most of the shrinking middle class and leaves you
at the whims of those elite that have cash--and actually think your cause
is worth donating to.

Again, good luck on that.

> 2. Sponsorship through companies that support the open source projects

I have no idea on this.  I see the support links on sf.net and I'm doubting
many people use them.  It's a place to start researching though.

> 3. Developing custom solutions for companies world-wide 

We already do that--for a price.  Oh, -them- do that?  Last I knew, they
didn't even use their own product.  I (and others) remember filing cabinets
full of paper at SCC back in '93ish of stuff that should have been in fP
but wasn't.  This may or may not have changed.

> 4. Write plug-in or add-on features people can buy for small fees

They're already doing that on a limited basis.  Look at sockets.  How many
copies you figure they've licensed?

> 5. Write "real" books

STN pretty much had it covered, I thought.  What they didn't, John Esak
went above and beyond a real book with his video on disc tutorial sets.
Considering the size of the niche market, we're pretty much saturated with
great resources for a seemingly shrinking audience.

> These are just a few.  If filePro were open source and the community grew
> to a small number (relatively small by open source standard) of just over
> 500K, I will love to write a filePro for Dummies book ... and have it
> sold for $14.95, take home 5% of that over the years ...

How much did you pay for your rose tinted glasses, Jose?  I have -got- to
get me a pair of those.

First, you have to get the word out there.  You can't do that until the
"something" the word is about is available.  You can't do that without
market research and a huge risk.  Then if it fails, they just gave up their
only real asset and primary cash cow.  Then they'd be up the proverbial
creek sans paddle.

And when gtk-gnutella (a p2p file sharing program) was at its height, I
doubt -it- had 500k users (I'd guess not even 1/8 that), and piracy isn't
exactly shy of users, as the RIAA and MPAA will be glad to tell anyone that
will listen.  What you're looking at to garner those kinds of numbers are
universal solutions--magic bullets that everyone needs and uses.  OpenSSH.
X11.  Apache.  PHP (you never heard me say that).  Perl.  Python.  

We're talking about either very complete, directed, and solid
single-purpose apps (apache, openssh), or very attractive multi-target
solutions like Perl, PHP, Python, et al.

fP...is neither of those.  The technology has been updated some, it's now
got some 64bit capabilities, but essentially we are still talking '78-2000
technology here.  It's not new, it's not sexy, and most of the hardcore
programmers out there won't know what to make of it unless they're force
into learning it.  For one, it's not even a "structured" language in the
conventional sense of the word.  That nukes 90% of your intended
programming audience right off the bat.

Now the SQL crowd...again, I outlined what I'd do if it were me.  That's
the only solid bet in the marketplace that I can think of.  The odds still
aren't perfect, but at least it's plausible.  But it would require an
overhaul and a lot of development.

> That is only the beginning.  You can then bet the community at large
> starting to look at it as the 'perfect application' for desktop solutions
> integrating it with MySQL and other SQLs.

You're kind of rushing to the middle, there.  You're overlooking the part
where "only the beginning" is a monumental step off a very steep cliff with
a parachute that may or may not be packed correctly--carrying a 50lb anvil.

Much as I'd like to see the character-based RAD for SQL, I think it makes
more sense to at least retain full rights and control over the IP, float
it, and promote it.  Even that's risky, but at least you haven't given away
the farm at the outset--if it fails, you still have your primary assets.
If you OSS it, you're losing a lot of that control, and thus potential
revenue if you're making a wrong call.

I'm a big fan of open source software, Jose.  But unlike many, I don't feel
the need for every package to become OSS.  I think they could -service- the
OSS market (notably MySQL's), given a decent strategy and the resources to
pull it off.  I don't think they need to give away the homeworld in order
to make that happen, however.

> I do not know the first thing about ftTech financials, but I dare say
> that a $1 donation from 500K people, with a potential average of $.15 per
> each month, that is $75,000 per month.  Is fpTech cashing in $75K per
> month solely on licensing sales?

That's only $900k a year.  That's not actually a very large sum.  I'd
surely take it, but for a company supporting 5-10 people?  Bit iffy,
especially with the skillsets some of them have and the wages they could
command.  

And you're -dreaming- about those volumes, at least for five
years--assuming the product was spruced up enough to curry favour with the
masses.

> Top this off with consulting, support, books, public appearances,
> merchandising, etc.
>
> What do you think, is it possible?

In a word?  No.  Emphatically, no.  Unless you convince ESR himself to take
a look at it and get him on your side (good luck there!) and proseletysing
for you, good luck achieving even 1/4 of those numbers anytime soon.  The
public appearances and merchandising actually made me laugh, mate.  Sorry,
but that's just about as likely to happen as me winning the Lotto.

Colour me cynical, as I surely have become a bit jaded in the last 13
years of business.  But what -I- see are good intentions on your part, and
exceedingly high (and unfounded) expectations/wishes, expressed in the form
of pipe dreams that haven't a chance in hell of coming to fruition.

I gotta give you high marks for positivity and constructive input.
Definitely for enthusiasm.  I'm just not seeing the need to go OSS in the
first place, nor am I seeing the current breed of programmers and users out
there with things like PHP, et al actually embracing something as arcane
and dated as fP with open arms.  I'm sorry, but I don't think that's even
close to a potential reality.

I'm not trying to be negative, I'm simply being a realist.  You asked, I'm
answering.  No offense, but you're pretty much dreaming.  Nothing wrong
with that...but I -know- they're not bringing the SR-71 back into service,
they're -going- to cancel the space shuttle program, and I'm pretty sure a
Mars mission will likely be 10-20 years further out than they promise--if
at all.  As I've often said, I'm an idealist trapped in the mind of a
fatalist.  You've got the idealism down, I'll give ya that.  I'm not saying
get cynical, I'm saying you have to look at what really is likely rather
than just what ideally -could- happen.

mark->
-- 
"Moral cowardice will surely be written as the cause on the death
certificate of what used to be Western Civilization." --James P. Hogan