 One of the hardest things for an open-source project to do is to make money and if you think about it really there are very few Foss projects out there that actually do make money or that have become successful financially Things like OBS Firefox Technically, I mean their money comes from Google But still they make enough money to pay a whole bunch of developers to do something and there are very few others That actually make money, but for the vast majority of open-source projects They struggle to make money now some developers just do this as a hobby It's not a big deal to them They have other means of making income and it's like I said, it's just a hobby but chances are Developers do need to make money for food shelter video games things like that the essentials and They're most likely going to be unable to do so in Foss software And that's become a huge problem almost across the board for open-source Projects it would be very hard to count the number of projects that have either been abandoned or Don't get updated very often simply because their developers had to go do something that actually made them money Usually these developers didn't lose interest in the projects. They just had to Actually feed their families So the question I'm going to ask today is why is it so hard to get people to pay for software that's open-source and I have four reasons, but I just want to say that these aren't the only four reasons I'm sure there are others that I just didn't think about or that I figured were too minor over that Might have made the video go a bit too long. So I'm just gonna go over these four And then if you have other reasons why you think people won't pay for open-source software Leave them in the comments below. Also before we jump in make sure you let comment and subscribe all that stuff It really does help the channel. We're getting very very close to 3,000 subscribers. I'm really happy about that So thanks everybody who's already subscribed and if you haven't make sure you do so So the first reason that people won't pay for open-source software is that for whatever reason? We chose at the very beginning of the Foss movement to use the word free Free and open-source software now free is one of those words That has multiple meanings in least in this instance sometimes When we use the word free we mean free is in beer. That's the common saying right That means free is in you don't have to pay for it other times the true meaning of free and in Foss means free Is in freedom right that's the whole Saying it's become cliche at this point in the youtuber community free isn't freedom That was a horrible choice in terms of Actually naming something because most people when they hear the word free they mean or they think that that means no cost and You're not gonna change that that's just the way the word works That's the majority of people when they hear the word free especially people who aren't a part of the the movement the people who are Evangelizing the liberty aspect of Foss software the people who would just come in and use Linux because Linux is free You're never gonna change the minds of those people because free means free to them It's just not going to you know be something that you can change so I think that this may be one of the biggest hurdles and also the the biggest Roadblock I guess To people paying for Foss software. You don't pay for things that are free That's just the way a lot of people look at it even though in this case. We don't actually mean free isn't no cost so I think that's one of the reasons why some people have tried to Change the word free to something like Libra or Libera or any of these ones different words that kind of spawn off the liberty and freedom Kind of mentality, but again that's movement towards using those different types of words Just hasn't taken off and you know, that's a big a big problem And I think that's probably the biggest reason why people won't pay for software The second reason why people may not pay for Foss software is that there are too many alternatives in the ecosystem So for example, let's just say Audacity which was recently bought by a big corporation Decided that they're going to start charging Because it's open source and over a thousand people have already forked audacity over the years They that means they have all the code on their GitHub that they can use under a certain license Those people can then distribute it for free and then there'd be no reason for anybody to pay the corporation that really owns audacity You know the money that they wanted to charge for it I mean, that's just one theoretical example of something that could happen and It's the same for any project that decides if they want to charge money Why would you pay for a Linux distribution say for example elementary OS when you can just use Ubuntu which is free It makes no sense to people financially, right? And when there there's all these alternatives to paid software, even if it is open source people are always Most people are always going to gravitate towards the stuff that costs no money simply because that's the nature of people, you know, if you had had a copy to coffee shops one of them offered coffee for free one of them Charge seven dollars a cup Which one are you gonna go to you're gonna go to the one that has free software or mix gives me free coffee You know, it's just the way people think it the vast majority of people who use free and open-source software aren't invested in the Development and expansion of the community. They they're just here to use the stuff and that's perfectly okay Right, but it also causes a problem where people need to make money when they develop this stuff And it's getting progressively harder to get people to pay for stuff And it's the same thing outside of the open-source community as well in the Apple app store The free games do way better than a game that charges $30 up front People there have been studies where people are actually more willing to pay for a whole ton of money in game For like, you know gems or fake currency loot boxes Then they would then they are that to pay for they're more How do I say I lost that with that one there for a minute there They're more willing to pay for stuff in app purchases and they are for Then that then they are That's so hard to say that they're more willing to pay for In app purchases and then they are to pay for an app up front out of pocket So that I don't know why that was so hard to pay But for what a reason the free thing in the app store is just way more attractive And they're much less averse to paying money once they get into the app Now whether or not that's something that could be adopted in Foss projects, I don't know I'm literally just thinking of it right now If you gave away the software for free and then pay Offered in app purchases for like extra features. Maybe that could work or something. I don't know So too many alternatives. That was the second point Why would you pay for something if there is a free version available most people are gonna look at it that way So the third reason is that there are just it's too hard to pay for Foss projects And what I mean by this is that if everyone if every Foss project decided to start charging for stuff There'd be multiple ways you'd have to pay for and you'd have to trust not only that you're giving You know then your credit card information and stuff like that, but you'd also have to trust that you know It's one more point of failure in terms of having your Credit card information out there now. Obviously, there are systems in place like PayPal and stuff again That's you know possible, but there's just so many different ones that there's PayPal and there's patreon and there's liberic pay And there's you know the github stuff and you know, it's every single place And it's not only is it a trust issue, but it's also Like oh, I'm I have to have an account in order to Pay for this. I mean like it's really hard to take money from somebody and also not gather some kind of information on them So a lot of people use Linux and opens their software because they don't have to give out that information And when you collect money almost universally And that's you're using some kind of anonymous payment system like of cash You know that project is then going to have some kind of record of that transaction Which probably will entail you leased your email address and probably your name as well And your credit card information. So that's a that's a big deal And I don't know that it's necessarily the biggest deal for most people I still think that most of it's just the ideal free software But I know personally it'd be very hard for me to justify giving Money to the smallest of projects because I don't know that I can trust them with any information, right? So it's it's the thing now Like I said, there are payment servers and services out there that take some of that trust You know and put it on more trustworthy actors like you kind of can trust GitHub to not leak stuff But I mean or at least you can trust them more than say just you know random Joe Schmo developer, you know Same thing with PayPal The fourth and final Reason that I thought of is that it's really hard to justify giving money to a project that you don't know it if it Will exist in a month two months six months or whatever flush projects die and get abandoned all the time I mean it's just a way of It's just a way it worked and Even if they're well funded they can still be abandoned because just because you've given a Project some money and a whole bunch of other people have given projects some money Doesn't mean that they the developers have to go through and continue to develop this thing a good example Just recently happened that glimpse that was a fork of gimp You know they had a lot of backers people gave them money I don't know how much money, but they definitely had some financial support and the developer just couldn't justify Keeping going and it's been abandoned even though they had financial support that stuff happens all the time So once you've gotten past the idea of not wanting to pay for free software free software You also have to deal with this uncertainty of whether or not Investment you're doing your the investment you're giving your donation. It's going to actually ensure that your Proud or you the project that you're investing in is going to continue on and be updated and be Developed for a long period of time it's a it's very hard To justify giving money to a like I said to a project that you don't know will always be there and it's a real issue for a lot of people simply because when There's this mentality that if you pay for something if you Donate to something even you're expecting that thing to at least exist for a little while but you're expecting your donation to make a little bit of difference in order to ensure that that project stays for a little while and You only have to be burnt once You know those people who invested in GIMP or in glimpse Those people may not ever donate again. I mean at least the smaller I mean if it's a the people who are very invested in the fast Community or whatever those people probably aren't going to be too hurt by it but if you were brand new to actually giving money to a fast project and This product has now been abandoned You may decide never to give money again because you've now been burned by that, you know So it's it's a it's a problem and it's not a problem that has an easy solution because It's like a chicken and egg problem problem. You have to the Projects need money in order to continue But just because they get that money they may not continue, you know, it's it's very it's a very complicated problem So that is it for this video. Like I said, there are probably more reasons why people don't pay for free software And I'll probably think about five of six of them right after I'm finished recording this But if you have any more reasons why you don't think people will pay for open-source software leave them in the comments below You can follow me on twitter at linuxcast. You can support me on patreon patreon.com slash linuxcast Before I go I'd like to take a moment to thank our current patrons devon marcus megaland donnie spin east coast web Merrick canvin michel. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time