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If you had/have enough disposable income, what would drive you to donate to opensource software? (programming.dev)

submitted 6 days ago by tinkralge@programming.dev to c/opensource@programming.dev

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Scenario: you're using opensource software and you aren't donating yet, however you have enough money left over every month to do so. Something(s) is holding you back from donating. Think about what that is and what would have to change for you to change that.

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[–] Lojcs@piefed.social 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Comparison with closed source software sometimes does. If I installed windows I would pay nothing. If I got a computer with Windows preinstalled I would pay a price premium less than $50, perhaps even negative. And buying it from Microsoft costs significantly more. So how much should I pay Arch? Paying $50 for something I get for free feels like I'm being had.

You might say that I can then pay smaller amounts regularly. But aren't subscriptions shunned when it's for closed source software?

Then who should I donate to? I've donated to Arch, Kde and the lemmy instances I use. But what about like Linux itself? Browsers I use? The weather app? Upstream libraries of those projects? How much should each get? Kde already gets more money than they can spend. Should the amount be based on how much value I receive or how much they need it?

And once those are decided then I need to find how to donate. It's easier to just not

[–] Tyropitoubas@nord.pub 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

First part of your logic I respectfully disagree. Don't forget that most of those proprietary software don't make money by your payment, but by your data. You are the product yada yada. I do not therefore expect a "lower price" for software that doesn't track and serve me more ads with a shovel. The fact that I get it for free and can choose to pay (donate) for it is an amazing plus.

Second part I fully agree though. A simple example for me is: Linux distro > KDE > Firefox > Lemmy > PeerTube instance > Content Creator. It gets out of hand really fast.

[–] Lojcs@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

No you're absolutely right. What I described is more of a gnawing fear that I'm not being smart worth my money