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Re: Appreciation / Financial support
From: |
Tim McNamara |
Subject: |
Re: Appreciation / Financial support |
Date: |
Mon, 28 May 2012 12:21:48 -0500 |
On May 28, 2012, at 9:29 AM, James Harkins wrote:
>
> Related: I can't say I read the list very closely, so somehow I overlooked
> the fact before that David K.'s livelihood comes from working on Lilypond. I
> had assumed Lilypond was almost completely a volunteer effort (like
> SuperCollider, for which I contribute some code, bug fixes and documentation
> when I can), so I hadn't taken seriously the idea of supporting Lilypond
> financially. The recent thread changes my mind about that. I can't do it
> immediately for reasons I don't need to discuss, but after I get back to the
> US for summer holiday, I can make a donation on the order of a few years'
> worth of "Finale tax" (yearly $100-$120 US upgrade fee).
The "Finale tax!" I got a chuckle out of that. But it's a great point.
> I'd urge other users to think in similar terms. If Lilypond is as valuable to
> you as Finale or Sibelius, or more: How much do those packages cost? Does a
> $10-$15 donation match the value you get out of Lilypond? My contribution may
> be a small amount of what David needs, but... if I can put that kind of value
> on Lilypond, maybe you can too.
Sending money to David is very simple, and I would think that would be the case
for other developers interested in this. Just send by PayPal or a bank wire
transfer, whichever is easiest/cheapest in terms of fees. Sending money
directly to developers instead of to a central Lilypond account cuts a lot of
costs and eliminates much of the need for organizational bureaucracy (e.g., an
accounting department).
FWIW with today's exchange rate for Americans, the €15 I sent = US $19.37
(minus fees). I don't know what the going hourly rate for developers is where
David lives; at US average wages for programmers my $19.37 would at best pay
for about 30 minutes of his time. I can afford to send about that every month.
What David *could* be making working at a job underscores the need for many
Lilypond users to be contributing- he would need 320 people a month each
contributing €15 to be competitive with having a regular full time job (and he
still would not be getting many of the benefits that would come with
traditional employment- at least seen through the lens of how self-employment
works in America).
As great as Lilypond's output is, there is a long way to go in terms of
simplification and usability (the syntax needs to be simplified dramatically; a
lot of the code users have to write is pretty ugly and is going to scare off
potential users). Having someone working full time on Lilypond is a great way
to get that done in under a decade.
- Appreciation / Financial support, James Harkins, 2012/05/28
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, David Kastrup, 2012/05/28
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support,
Tim McNamara <=
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, David Kastrup, 2012/05/28
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, Tim McNamara, 2012/05/28
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, Janek Warchoł, 2012/05/28
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, Dr. med. Kai Lautenschläger, 2012/05/28
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, Tim Slattery, 2012/05/29
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, Tim McNamara, 2012/05/29
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, David Kastrup, 2012/05/28
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, Han-Wen Nienhuys, 2012/05/29
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, David Kastrup, 2012/05/29
- Re: Appreciation / Financial support, Han-Wen Nienhuys, 2012/05/29