Free Software on Android

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi Nadav,

On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:43:25 +0200
Nadav Har'El <nyh at math.technion.ac.il> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 28, 2011, Shlomi Fish wrote about "Re: Free Software on Android":
> > Well, note http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html - I think we shouldn't
> > discourage Android FOSS developers from trying to sell their applications (as
> > long as they also provide the source, which means that other people can make
> 
> The "problem" is that Free Software doesn't just require providing the
> source - it also requires that the people who get the source may redistribute
> the program or modified versions of it. This means that if you have an
> ad-supported app and publish its source code as free software (GPL, BSD
> license, or whatever), someone can - legally and morally - remove the
> ad showing code and also publish it on the market. Or worse - he can
> leave the ads and publish it on the market, making the ad money himself!
> 
> So while it is theoretically possible to try to sell free software on
> the Android market, I don't see how this business model can be
> sustained.
> 
> I noticed two approaches to try to solve this problem:
> 
> The first approach is to have a free and ad-less app, but in addition
> have in the market a "app + donation" variant which costs money. The
> free app tells you in its "About" has a link to the donation version in the
> market, encouraging you to buy it if you want to give money to the
> developers. I like this approach, but I don't know how many people will
> actually pay. On one app I actually used, the free version has 1000-5000
> installs, while the $1 donation version had 1-5 (!) installations.
> 
> The second approach is one taken by the "OSMAnd" (OpenStreetMap for
> Android) project. It's free software, but they only published an old
> version for free on the market, and a newer version for a fee. They do
> have a new free version on their site, but it's not on the convenient
> Google market so most laypeople will end up paying to get the new version.
> The question is, what prevents someone else, legally or morally, from
> uploading the most recent OSMAnd, or a fork thereof, to the Android market.
> For now, this hasn't happened, but I don't see how they can guarantee
> this in the future.
> 

I see.

> > and much more other open source apps. Some shareware or otherwise commercial
> > text editors appear to be doing pretty well so far, but they face an increasing
> > amount of competition from open-source text editors. 
> 
> Really? When was the last time you saw a commercial text editor??
> I haven't seen one in years, possibly decades :-) But we are digressing.
> 

Well, it's been a while since I saw one used on Linux, but there are a few
commercial editors or IDEs for Windows, Mac OS X and even Linux. There's a
list of some popular alternatives of them here:

http://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/resources/editors-and-IDEs/

Of those, Komodo IDE and Wing IDE have Linux versions and the UltraEdit
company recently released a Linux version. 

> > I'm sure your code is in better condition than most of the code that beginning
> > programmers (and sometimes experienced ones) that I regularly review on
> > Freenode channels. I'm never ashamed to make my code viewable, and I've even
> > posted some code I've written in high school:
> 
> I agree - when I started understanding the example widget I started
> with, I realized that half of the code there was redundant crap.
> I guess the guy who wrote that widget also copied half of the code from
> other people's code, and also didn't understand very well what he was doing :-)
> 

Heh.

> In any case, when I'm pleased enough with the silly widget I wrote, I'll
> find a way to publish it. On F-Droid? On the Android market (I'll need
> to shell out $25 to Google for that)? On my website? I'll have to figure
> out.

OK.

> 
> If you're curious, my silly 50-line widget toggles WiFi on and off, which I
> need to conserve battery and avoid annoying hyperlinking ads when my children
> play on the device. If you want to complain that, "hey, there are already 10
> free apps for doing that", well, 1. You're right, but that's why I
> started with such a simple task, and 2. Mine is better ;-) and 3. All
> but one of these 10 aren't free software (open source), and the free one
> was the widget I started with to develop my improved version.
> 

Nice. Did you try sending your improvements to that widget upstream?

> Nadav.
> 
> P.S. It hurts me (and probably hurts Stallman even more) that when searching
> for Android software, the keywords "free software" is useless, and I find
> myself searching for "open source" :(

I don't mind it much as I use the term "open source" whenever I see fit.
(Though I don't completely avoid using the term "free software".). My respect
for Stallman and the FSF has declined since the entire GPLv3-vs.-GPLv2-vs.-AGPL
compatibility issue and the whole fiasco surrounding his recent visit to the
occupied territories. And I was also never a fan of using strong copyleft or
weak copyleft licences for the software that I released, for the reasons that
I've outlined here and here:

* http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/open-source/foss-licences-wars/

* http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il/msg56379.html

I don't mean to say that I oppose the concept of FOSS (free and open source
software) or its ideology, just that I have some reservations from Stallman's
behaviour and the philosophy he promotes.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
First stop for Perl beginners - http://perl-begin.org/

Mastering ‘cat’ is almost as difficult as herding cats.
    — http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/Mastering-Cat/

Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .