Hacker News

Write some software, give it away for free

33 points by nohell 51 minutes ago | 11 comments

kw3b 24 minutes ago

I started out in the BBS and demoscene of the 90s. The glory days of computing in my opinion, because of the technical innovation (people were making magic with 7mhz processors) and how the community arranged itself. e.g, some ANSI artists in the artpack scene went on to become legit artists, but nobody was sitting around grinding ANSIs to make millions or raise capital. I think about that era in my own open source work today, I just work on what I enjoy and find interesting and whatever happens happens as long as I can pay the bills.

koen_hendriks 11 minutes ago

You'd probably love this latest Razor1911 prod, if you haven't seen it yet: https://youtu.be/dybkLM-1eQo

nohell 19 minutes ago

I wasn't alive in the 90s, and barely was in the 00s. I look at others writings about those early days, and compare it to today, then get a weird feeling of wanting to experience the "good ol' days" before python scripts made in 10 minutes by an AI and sold to investors as "vendor lock-in" was the thing to strive for.

darknavi 12 minutes ago

Fwiw I assume most people feel this way.

I am a 90s kid and I watch things like Stranger Things and feel nostalgia for a simpler time even though I wasn't even alive in the 80s.

Topology1 18 minutes ago

Wish there was a way to send this to every mobile dev who thinks they can (and should) charge a subscription for their hobby app that provides a basic function

nohell 15 minutes ago

What! You don't want to pay $3.99 a WEEK for a calculator???

dnnddidiej 2 minutes ago

No. You, so need to hoodwink me into paying it. Better yet hoodwink my kid.

msla 9 minutes ago

> It cost about $600 USD to release, mostly due to two initial security reviews.

Can someone expand on this? I've given software away free and it didn't cost me anything.

nohell 5 minutes ago

I paid other humans with security expertise to "soft audit" the program prior to release, which uncovered a variety of vulnerabilities which were patched.

It's a courtesy to the users, especially self-hosters.

sdenton4 24 minutes ago

See also: "You don't have to monetize your joy"

https://thehabit.co/you-dont-have-to-monetize-your-joy/