Simple Apps And Livelihoods

Daniel Jalkut has an interesting piece on the perception people have that simple software should be free. It’s a perception that I actually share – it annoys me when people ask for money in exchange for really simple applications. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the effort that goes into software, it’s just that I’m a make the world a better place kind of guy. I believe simple things, which cost effectively nothing to reproduce, should be released for free on the basis that you both give and take from such a system.

To give an example, I’ve recently given my old computer to my father in law and spent quite a bit of time setting it up so it works the way he wants, has all his applications and documents etc. He’s happy with the result and I’m happy to help, not least of all because before my wife and I moved in together I spent pretty much every night at their place and they happily fed me without asking for anything in return. Of course, I know him and it’s pretty much a given that we’ll do things to help each other – that’s what friends and family do.

The same idea applies on a wider scale though. If I see someone looking lost I ask if they want directions and help them out. I’ll never see them again, but it’s a nice thing to do. Turns out that recently I was lost and someone was nice enough to ask if I wanted help, pointed out that I was in fact heading in completely the opposite direction and set me straight. Karma. We all do nice things and we all make the world a better place.

The key thing to note in these examples is that being generous or helpful isn’t costing me my livelihood or really costing me all that much at all. Certainly setting up the computer cost both time and money (or at least the potential of it if I’d sold the computer instead of giving it away) but it’s insignificant compared to what I have so I can afford to share it. This of course leads in to the argument that always comes up about why you should pay for simple software. As Daniel says it:

Software costs money, time, and resources to develop, just like many of the other products in our lives. And just like those peanuts on the bar, many companies with other things to sell you are in a good position to give away freebies that help to promote their business; to encourage you and your friends to give them money for different reasons.

But smaller companies don’t often have the variety of products and sevices that lends itself to such a complex strategy. Given a good product idea and a market to sell to, they’re forced to adopt the simplest of all strategies: pure payment. Build something brilliant, and be rewarded with money. This money translates into a great motivation for the developer, which in turn translates back into product greatness. It’s easy to understand why the majority of great products in this world do cost money to obtain.

This argument makes the assumption that there is a viable business model around making really simple software and expecting people to pay for it. If you can’t make your livelihood doing something you wouldn’t do it at all and so the software wouldn’t exist or wouldn’t be as good. The trouble with this logic is that most of these really simple products are created as a hobby in people’s spare time rather than as some grand business plan to put food on the table. How many of these developers quit their day job to write a utility to make it easy to add things to delicious? If they created it in their spare time, you don’t need to pay for it to support their livelihood – their day job does that so earning a living doesn’t come into it and you need to find a better argument.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong for people to charge money for simple software, if they can make it work then good for them, but it does help to explain why people don’t like it. To a lot of people it comes across as a little bit selfish or greedy, like not wanting to share your toys. The reality is that it’s just a different view on the world and I’m sure they’re very nice people who are generous in a whole range of other areas, but that’s the perception. It’s like charging 10 cents to help an old lady across the street – it might be how you make your living (however unlikely that is) or you might give all the proceeds to charity but it still seems like you’re being really cheap.