[Pythonmac-SIG] Mac User Python Newbies

[Bob Ippolito]

On Feb 14, 2005, at 19:47, Chris Barker wrote:

>
>
> Bob Ippolito wrote:
>> I'm definitely interested in these things (more some than others), 
>> but I'm currently professionally committed to some other stuff.  The 
>> real problem I'd have with this sort of business venture is doing it 
>> in a way that's compatible with open source, but still making enough 
>> money to keep doing it without spending too much time doing 
>> consulting.
>
> Well, aside form the fact hat I'm no businessman, that's one of my 
> show stoppers too. I'm not sure how to balance open source and trying 
> to make a profit.
>
>> I'd definitely want to give these things away as liberally licensed 
>> open source,
>
> I would too, but I'm not sure there's a business plan there. Another 
> idea was to open source what has always worked well as open source: 
> the core libraries, like whatever GUI toolkit was used, be it 
> improvements to an existing one, or something done just for this. The 
> nifty, easy-for-newbies IDEs are kind of more of a natural for 
> proprietary projects, as has been discussed here.

I'm not sure I'd really want to do it if it wasn't almost entirely open 
source.  If I'm going to be developing closed stuff, I might as well 
target a larger market than current and future Python developers :)

>> which might mean that it has to be done in the context of a 
>> non-profit foundation (like Chandler via OSAF).
>
> That would be nice, but I have even less of an idea how to get money 
> for hat than I do getting venture capital to start a business. 
> However, perhaps this is just what one poster proposed: the PSF could 
> fund a good cross-platform IDE.

It'd probably be easier to try and get grant(s) than to try and start a 
new non-profit organization expressly for the purpose -- but I wouldn't 
really know.

>> However, it might be possible to get away on a smaller scale by 
>> simply having a set of robust open source tools as the "lite" 
>> version, and a "pro" version with a couple nice extra features that 
>> isn't free (like the difference between OmniGraffle and OmniGraffle 
>> Pro).
>
> Another good idea, but we'd still need the start-up money!

The way some small software developers have gone is to segue a 
consulting business (which takes almost no startup capital) into a 
product business..

-bob