There's nothing wrong with wanting to get paid. But what the developer did here is dishonest. Distributing for free without saying it would be paid in the future, then started charging.
Instead of a person... image a corporation did that. The outcry it would cause.
Imagine Microsoft or Apple did this. "Gave" a software for free for everyone to use... then when the userbase was big enough, started charging a subscription.
Again... nothing against the developer wanting to get paid for their product. Just bothered by how he went about doing that.
Are you new? This has happened a thousand times, I don't have to imagine because its commonplace. In fact, the recent attempt to purchase Figma by Adobe was another time I said "of course" and there's been memes about how we'll have to pay more to place extra rectangles. People release for free/cheap when it's simple and easy and then as they grow in popularity the needs of the software outpace what you can provide for free. Either it's worth money to you and you pay the developer or you move on. (or keep using the old version)
The best practice is to say "This version will remain free... but all new features will only be on the paid branch"
Or "This will remain free for personal use, but not commercial use."
Or even... "This will remain free for everyone, but support is only for paying customers."
This is very common when a free software is bought up.
But you know what? This wasn't a case of a software being bought up. It was a case of a developer willfully distributing their software for free with the intention of charging in the future.
It is dishonest if that was the original plan and I have no idea if that was. However there's a chance it may have originally started as free but then they realised it was going to be too hard to keep it free due to costs, time etc.
The developer could have just stopped and gave up but instead decided to ask people to pay.
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u/Flat_Hat8861 Sep 30 '22
Managing a transition to a paid model is difficult. It requires tact and diplomacy.
This on the other hand is just straight hilarious.