[Gambas-user] Gambas Software Farm in revision #6676

[Kevin Fishburne]

On 11/26/2014 12:02 AM, T Lee Davidson wrote:
> On 11/25/2014 10:38 PM, Kevin Fishburne wrote:
>> Since the farm (as it stands currently) is only for free software (as in
>> GPL), users will be free to circumvent payment by downloading the
>> application from another source, such as someone who paid and then began
>> hosting the source code and/or binaries themselves. This is perfectly
>> legal, as the GPL states users may modify or distribute the application
>> as they see fit as long as they provide access to the source code. So
>> payment will effectively be for convenience, application support or
>> kindness rather than the only way they can access the application.
>>
>> I'm thinking that creating a payment system for GAMBAS would be an
>> insane amount of work and probably isn't a good idea. A much easier way
>> would be to support existing payment solutions such as PayPal. Here's
>> some information on their "digital goods" payment solutions:
> Benoît stated that the Farm was not intended to be a marketplace.


While that is true, it may not always be the case. Things change 
according to the wants and needs of users and developers. At this time 
there may be little interest in that particular functionality among 
developers, but it seems an obvious extension to what is essentially a 
digital distribution service, so I think it's worth at least discussing.


> Hence, my suggestion that it could be used as a pseudo-marketplace by
> allowing publishers to make their listing private. The payment and/or
> transaction details, access credential delivery, and level of on-going
> support (free/paid) would be the responsibility the individual publisher.


That's an interesting suggestion, but I'm not sure if it can be made to 
fit in with the plan to have the farm compile and install the 
application on the end user's system. If that's the farm's primary 
objective then it would be too late for a password-protective archive as 
the program would already be installed.


> I was not suggesting creating a payment system for GAMBAS, nor
> complicating or burdening the Farm platform with transactional needs.


I am suggesting 3rd party payment processing integration. :) Didn't mean 
to imply that you were suggesting it.


> Any publishers successfully using the Farm commercially could graciously
> 'buy Benoît a beer', or three.


True, I've even bought him a few beers myself, but I wouldn't build a 
business on that premise.


-- 
Kevin Fishburne
Eight Virtues
www: http://sales.eightvirtues.com
e-mail: sales at ...1887...
phone: (770) 853-6271