FUNDING THE FREE

Jonni Bidwell delves into the thorny issues surrounding funding open-source projects and urges you to support your favourite free software.

- Jonni Bidwell

For many of us, the price tag was a key part of what got us into free software. But giving everything away for free does not a viable business plan make, and many successful free software projects got that way by discovering sustainable funding streams. These might be in the form of donations, subscriptions, sponsorship or merchandise (there’s no better way to support your favourite project than owning a mug with their logo emblazoned on it). Or it might be in the form of a paid-for, premium version, which may include extra support or extra features.

We regularly run features telling you to  ditch proprietary services and join the self-hosted revolution. But those services, be they  Gmail, Dropbox or Zoom, are all free, and  running your own will cost you in time (email  is still hard, by the way) and infrastructure  demands. Of course, numerous alternative  services have popped up that, for a small fee,  will provide these kind of services using open  source tooling and without dubious data  slurping practices. So in many ways the  tables have turned. And there’s no doubt that  there’s value in free software.