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**ashlar** · 2010-10-07, 12:26

I know there's a €99 fee to become a developer. And that might be a justification. But when I see the prices... I'm just curious, this project has been free for everybody for years and years, surviving on donations.

It's a mild criticism, you are obviously entitled to do whatever you want with your time and your work.

And to recover the initial €99 there are several ways. Ransom model comes to mind.

~~Robotica~~ · 2010-10-07, 12:48

it´s reasonable for any dev to make some money with all their efforts as long as the customers keep their freedoms and prices are fair...

**ashlar** · 2010-10-07, 13:00

Sure, it's just that it's pretty strange to have XBMC for free and a product that piggybacks on it being sold at a price.

Take the Logitech Squeezebox line of products. While it's true that SqueezeServer is a free download, the business model has always been that of selling the hardware. The developers of SqueezeServer have a regular pay, etc.
In that case, I understand iPeng and other apps to be on sale with a price. It's more or less in line with the philosophy of the project.

With XBMC... not so much. But maybe it's just me. And again I stress: devs are more than free to do whatever they like. I'm mainly interested in the reasoning behind it all.

Cheers! Smile

~~Robotica~~ · (This post was last modified: 2010-10-07, 13:23 by Robotica.)

There are a gillion pieces of commercial software based around a GPL foundation. So that´s no argument.

As a paying customer you have the option not to buy or use that software if you think it should be free. In the menawhile, you always can create a free version yourself or wait for someone to do just that.

But I really liked the squeezebox model (I am a squeezbox version 1 user) before it became logitech. They showed how a open source community could stand. Otherwise, it would have been forked and monetized by the fork. Same with Boxee and XBMC.

So the reason is simple: Make some money with their efforts.

btw: Open Source purists would never develop software on a Apple platform

Adam B. · 2010-10-07, 13:47

There's also a sort of expectation that everyone will pay for apps in the app store. On the android market, you see a lot more free/add supported versions and paid add-free versions. I'm a fan of this model, which is one of the reasons I exclusively develop on Android.

edz2k9 · 2010-10-07, 14:12

.. one of the main reasons I bought an HTC Desire rather than an Iphone 4G (I'd be lying if I said £140 on top of an already overlong contract wasnt a factor) Laugh

**pecinko** · 2010-10-07, 14:13

Adam B. Wrote:There's also a sort of expectation that everyone will pay for apps in the app store. On the android market, you see a lot more free/add supported versions and paid add-free versions. I'm a fan of this model, which is one of the reasons I exclusively develop on Android.

No, you're Android developer for some other reason.

**pecinko** · 2010-10-07, 14:20

ashlar Wrote:I know there's a €99 fee to become a developer. And that might be a justification. But when I see the prices... I'm just curious, this project has been free for everybody for years and years, surviving on donations.

I agree, and some of them are free. I'm using:

uRemote http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uremote-x...30858?mt=8

and

Plexures http://itunes.apple.com/se/app/plexures/...86486?mt=8

Now, don't let the name misguide you with a second one. It's a s a gesture based remote for Plex Media Center _and XBMC_.

**pecinko** · 2010-10-07, 14:31

Robotica Wrote:btw: Open Source purists would never develop software on a Apple platform

pshhhh.... Davilla may hear you.

~~Robotica~~ · 2010-10-07, 14:46

haha... it´s hard to deal with companies like Microsoft, Apple and Intel being a purist.