A lot of people here have such a bizarre stance.
People have put work into this, for free. And the moment they ask for support, you immediately bring the pitchforks out, over a singular pop-up you can permanently disable? That’s just plain disrespectful, at the very least
Unfortunately, there has always been the issue that a not-insignificant percentage of users of FOSS software believe the FREE part means “free as in beer” and take umbrage when asked to contribute.
I’ve long been a proponent (and I know I’m in a minority) that has advocated for a shift in the marketing of FOSS applications from “donation based” to “value based”. Meaning that the expectation is that if you enjoy the software, you pay an amount that you believe is commensurate to your use. This is voluntarily of course…if you can’t pay, than please use it and enjoy it. But those who can pay, should pay…at least a little bit, to offset the costs for those who can’t.
It’s more or less that the wording of FOSS apps needs to change so that you are expected to contribute if you can.
Just my opinion. Like I said, I know I’m in the minority. Just not a fan of the percentage of users that has always existed that (falsely) think that asking for money for your project is somehow anathema to the Open Source ideal and whine whenever they’re asked to contribute.
Maybe donate 50 cents for every hour you used the software and it was useful to you.
That would be 1000 €$ per year if you work with Linux full time.
Let’s see some commercial software:
Microsoft Office 365 is 70 $€ per year. Adobe Suite around 700 $€ per year. IntelliJ IDEA about 170 $€ per year. Affinity Suite is 170 $€ once. Reaper is 60 €$ for a discounted license. Full featured media player like Elmedia costs 20 $€. BBEdit costs 60.
The FOSS windows and Mac FTP client Cyberduck asks for a minimum 10 €$ donation. It won’t prompt you for a donation if you bought a license. The Duck applications are all pretty nice.
The Duck applications are all pretty nice.
They make more apps than just Cyberduck?
Mountain Duck and Cryptomator
Also what the hell is up with everyone saying “free as beer”?
Beer isn’t free!
The full saying is “Free as in Speech, not Free as in Beer”
Basically the “Free” in free means that it’s free to do with as you please, modify, etc… But not free as in “here’s a free product…like getting a free beer”
That’s also confusing and it is not the full saying. The full saying is “free as in free speech, not free beer”.
From the FSF website:
Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. Think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”. Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.
I’m not against the idea, but I do think it’s a bit unfair. There are dozens of projects KDE relies on that never even get the chance to ask for donations this way, simply because they don’t need a GUI.
I believe KDE should at least offer to share the donations with other projects, projects that would otherwise have no voice. Something like the old Humble Bundle donation method would work really well, and let users to choose how their money is allocated.
While I understand where you are coming from. That goes for a lot of projects in general. Not to mention that KDE is literally an example of the thing you are talking about. KDE has an entire ecosystem of libraries that anyone can use called kde frameworks with many examples of these libraries being used on various projects large and small outside of KDE. They don’t see a dime from this either. I recall a conference on TechHut’s youtube channel spotting KDE’s frameworks in the wild being used by companies at the event.
And KHTML! Basically, KDE work is the foundation of the browser engines behind Chromium and Safari.
From experience with Windows “freeware” some of us have seen what happens when such pop-up notices become commonplace. It is not pretty.
This isn’t Windows, and this isn’t freeware
It’s not complicated.
It’s an ad.
There’s no version of advertising I will ever be OK with.
Your entitlement is Karen level.
You’re advertising your opinion here, is that okay?
Not an ad. No one is trying to sell you anything.
(If you get the notification) you’re already using their product.
Yes, it is an ad. Any call to action is an ad.
And its mere presence will ensure I don’t give them any more money. The core concept of inserting any ad in an OS is not behavior I am willing to reward.
Ads try to sell you something, there is no “call to action”. Here, there is nothing to sell, so by definition it’s not an ad.
They are just asking you if you’d like to help them in providing you the product you’re already using.
So, asking you to VOLUNTARILY donate IF YOU WANT to with a pop-up you can simply ignore and/or disable is advertising? I don’t understand… I mean, they give you a product for free, full of good features and updated regularly, and the moment they ask you to donate, again, IF YOU WANT to, it’s considered advertising…
You’re so sad, dude.
Yes. It is literally impossible for an organization asking for money not to be an ad.
And yes, showing me a single ad once means I never give them money again. I am not OK with ads.
Don’t use KDE then🤷♂️
Those assholes! They should make an OS for free!!! How dare they ask for support?!?!
No one forces you to support them, if it’s so annoying just disable it. I wonder if makes you happy work for someone for free… Hope it will happen to you so you’ll understand how bad it is :)
Cya
That’s an interesting logic. You do realise that at least 50% of the groceries in your local store are likely to have been advertised somewhere. Guess you should stop buying groceries too…
so lemmy on their join-lemmy.org site have this, https://join-lemmy.org/donate
Goodbye?
lmao, good one!
Drink some water!
…was that an ad?
Stop it, you’re scaring him!
Seems like a reasonable donation prompt; it’s infrequent, unobtrusive, and can be easily dismissed and disabled. Some people are so sensitive to the idea of any sort of soliciting that they forget projects do need money to function.
Yup. I like their just in December approach too. I have a problem with distrohopping so I’m often re-setting up my system. Every time I do, Thunderbird pops up donation prompts both in the app and in my browser. I get why they do it, but it’s annoying when that happens. KDE’s approach avoids this pitfall.
Some people just don’t like their OS being used for that purpose and want it to be just a tool that shuts up and does exactly as it’s told and no more. I can see that point of view. Our computers aren’t free billboards. It’s like when car dealers stick their own custom logo on the cars they sell to people.
The difference is, that you’re using something for free, and you can disable this very easily.
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The Windows is not free. The OEMs pay a license fee and that cost is passed on to people buying those computers.
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“The price is included” so you did pay for it. That alone makes the comparison invalid and its pointless to even compare a free community developed product to a paid product by profit company on a revenue discussions.
Those people are completely misinformed then. The OS did not come free. You paid for it. You pay for the license every time you buy a computer. If KDE had that then yeah it would by annoying, but they probably wouldn’t be asking then.
Most places tell you how much you are paying for it. I have to go out of my way to not pay for it since I don’t plan on using windows when I buy a new device.
I get that. I was just saying why it might tick some people off. My idea of a good OS is one that you don’t even notice while using it. It just sits in the background doing its thing and you don’t have to think about whether you’re using KDE, Gnome, or whatever, because it never makes itself known and you just happily use your programs.
I understand this, but we need to be reasonable and avoid extremes. This software is extensively free (as in beer) and requires development support. As long as the prompt doesn’t cross any lines into exploitive territory I think it’s fine. It would be nice for them to have explored other fundraising avenues first though and have saved this as an exhaustive “final” option.
This software is extensively free (as in beer)
No…it’s not. It’s free to download and to use, but the expectation that people contribute in exchange for using it is how FOSS has always worked.
That doesn’t necessarily mean monetary. But contributing can be helping with user guides, or making youtube tutorials, or even just extending the reach of the program to friends and family by talking about it.
There are many ways to contribute, and money is one. But the notion that Open Source software is “free as in beer” has never been correct. Users have an expectation to contribute…period.
I mean, at least I’m not paying $200* for the privilege of being advertised to… I’d like an option to disable it permanently in the popup but it seems mostly reasonable?
^* This is the first price I got for a Windows licence when I searched for it. I know you can probably get them cheaper, but that’s the price they’re advertising, so eh.^
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There is an option to disable it permanently. Otherwise it is once a year and easily dismissed
Why?
People spend countless hours building the software you use for free. Now they need to buy actual hardware yo build and test that software and what? They have to pay with their own money besides all that time they spent already so that you can continue to use this for free?
You’re not forced to pay anything, they’re asking for small donations
Either i wasn’t clear or you are replying to the wrong person, but i am in support of foss projects asking for donations in a reasonable manor such as this
I personally think once a year is not enough. Every 6 months might be better. Also people already spend a lot during December that they might not prioritize donating to KDE.
For those complaining… Well I don’t know what to say to them. Such a big complex software which is 100% free should be allowed to remind us that they need money.
Don’t forget they said it’s running as a daemon specifically so you can easily disable it if it triggers you so much.
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As long as the “No Thanks” button is a one and done go-away button, I think this is a decent idea!
It’s once per year, easily dismissed, and can be permanently disabled. Seems entirely reasonable for a piece of free software that someone would use everyday
Have you visited Wikipedia lately? I’ll gladly donate to KDE when I see this next time.
No problem… Once a year is fine. It’s a non-profit based in Germany…
Thunderbird shows it once at every startup…
Thunderbird was dead until it added a donations banner then used the donations to hire some programmers.
