[mythtv-users] THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL MAILING LIST (WAS: Re: Torc for iOS - Application Submitted to the App Store for Review)

[Gavin Hurlbut]

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 7:26 AM, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 10:01 PM, Christopher Kerr
> <mythtv at theseekerr.com> wrote:
>> But as it is, dozens of such comments are made on this list every week, and
>> never have I seen a developer pop in to say "Oh, hey, there does seem to be
>> a lot of users concerned about this, I'll give it some of my time".
>
> That's not primarily how open source works.  It's more of a "I'm
> concerned about this, I'll give it some of my time." type thing.

Not to mention that a large number of developers don't have the time
to follow the noise in this list. :)

> I would like to see more developers being able to spend more time to
> work on Open Source.  Lacking time bubble technology that may mean
> needing to find some way to bring money in so that working on open
> source can be a full time occupation.  With developers like Robert
> McNamara wanting roofs and such (probably food too) we see him
> choosing to use a traditional closed source model for the iOS app,
> which I understand but find unfortunate.  I'd rather see the
> development funded more like the way public broadcasting is funded
> here in the US, but for some reason no one has tried to attempt this
> on a significant scale.

What, you want a pledge week, with annoying ads on your frontend
before playback? :)

I dare say you'd be hard-pressed to find a developer on this project
who hasn't sunk a lot of personal finances into the development
effort.  We don't do it for the money.  While it would be nice to
recoup costs, I believe the real reason Robert chose closed-source for
that app was because Apple will not allow GPL apps, and thus he had no
choice.  At that point, trying to recoup some of the investment (which
he should have no problems at all doing) sounds reasonable.

Anyways...