That has been my experience as well. I consider it a bug. I'm not proposing that we all just try harder to be altruistic, but rather that we craft some institution for rewarding people who have solved problems for many without encumbering those solutions with a monetization scheme.
Make like, a week long "holiday" where you either verify that your company has made an adequate donation to the OSS maintainers that make their products possible, or we all just go on strike for that week. Or... something. I'm sure somebody has a better idea than mine, lets get creative.
> I'm not proposing that we all just try harder to be altruistic, but rather that we craft some institution for rewarding people who have solved problems for many without encumbering those solutions with a monetization scheme.
> I'm sure somebody has a better idea than mine, lets get creative.
Every creative scheme I've seen someone try to come up with fails to do what charging money for a product can. Charge money for stuff, have a free tier, enjoy sustainable software.
That's fine for software that can still scratch the itch after it has been turned into a product, but I think there's a lot of unexplored space outside that category.
There's also a bunch of cases where adding tiers and payment flows blows the complexity budget and now what used to be a good idea is no longer worth it.
Make like, a week long "holiday" where you either verify that your company has made an adequate donation to the OSS maintainers that make their products possible, or we all just go on strike for that week. Or... something. I'm sure somebody has a better idea than mine, lets get creative.