Re: advertising in free applications
 

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/a...os-armageddon/

This patent resulted in an uproar. You do not think it would cause one on an open source (and free) platform?

You are correct, it would not bother everyone.

However, the real issue is - give them an inch and they take a mile (for non-US: give them a centimeter and they take a kilometer). It doesn't take long for text ads to turn into flashing banner ads. then pop-ups. and then into video+audio ads. and then [finally?] intrusive ads.

I consider that garbage.

That might be fine for some target audiences, but not this one.

And lastly, Google is an ad "agency", yet even they haven't tried pulling this on their OS (Android).

By all means give it a try, I think we'd all like to see how far you get with this business model.

My suggestion for OSS developers, include a discrete donate button on your homepage under "contact info".

Re: advertising in free applications
 

Please god no, don't turn this into another ad-infested jailbroken iPhone!

Re: advertising in free applications
 

No thanks. I expect adware on my Windows computer; not on my tablet.

Re: advertising in free applications
 

look around the real world, everything is branded.
from the tape measure to the bottle opener and they run throughout your tv channels.

advertising is everywhere and it does depend on how its used and presented and whether the user gets a benefit from it.

if it was crass dating ads on an unrelated app, i totally agree.

But on the flip side, if a photo app was sponsored by Kodak and had a method to send images for real printing directly from your phone I doubt there would be an uproar because its in context.

Re: advertising in free applications
 

But it's so frustrating to see screens with "PLEASE CLICK THE AD 5 SECONDS LEFT" text on it and the screen full of advertisements. Also when you try to play a game and then an ad pops up in the upper part of the screen periodically and just distracts you and obscures you view.

This is all reality on the free jailbroken iPhone apps.

Re: advertising in free applications
 

joppu, yikes, i agree its not what is wanted and I would kill it with fire too.

Re: advertising in free applications
 

You are free to look for a sponsor, and to embed ads in your app.
I am free to take it or leave it.
You can earn money if your app is worthier than avoiding its ads and nags.
These are the rules I am willing to play with.

But please no ads/sponsors in the firmware or the OS. I don't want a device that I must say "thank you" to twice a day.

Re: advertising in free applications
 

I prefer an Ad supported app over a application you've to buy. Naturally it depends on how invasive the Ads are.
If somebody wants to survive just coding his apps, he has to find a way to monetize them. You either sell them on Ovi, or include ads, as far as I know. I imagine this thread was created to find alternatives and/or discuss about these two.
If no other solution is found, personally I prefer not too invasive ads as I said. To protect the application from removing them, there are many open source licenses, you can find the right one.
Open source doesn't have to mean 'gratis'.
Maybe someone will still remove the ads, but it'll be illegal (some people care, some not), and they'll have to find the patch/modded version/recompile after modifications.

Of course, if I find a similar application without ads, that's rapidly a change in my preferences. ;)

You can naturally add a "register field" where you insert a premium code that disables the ads. But crackers will just have to create a key generator.

Another thing I tought: maybe you can make it so that who's very annoyed and informs himself has the ability to remove the ads, for example with some strange terminal command. This way, the pissed/expert people will be able to have a ads free application, while the people that doesn't care or are just too "noob" will be struck with the ads. Maybe it would also be a bit educative... :)

Re: advertising in free applications
 

Without getting into a long ideological discussion, my position is I love free software, and I still don't want FOSS to exterminate proprietary software. I also think there's still a lot of unexplored space in the area of making a living off of FOSS, so I can see where lcuk is standing.

Ads can be really intrusive, but ads are only one way of obtaining sponsorship. I don't think having a dialog box explaining the sponsorship is the greatest idea either for a couple of reasons. No one will look at it and the sponsors are smart enough to know that, and I don't think sponsorship should result in changes in application functionality.

Maybe the application title could be something like "liqbase by Coca Cola"? That wouldn't bother me terribly. Or if you and a sponsor can find a design that both reflects the sponsor and what the application does, you could give them influence over launcher icon.

I've been doing various forms of FOSS advocacy for near a decade now and it's where I hang my hat. But I think people shouldn't get flamed for wanting to try to make a living producing innovative free software.

Re: advertising in free applications
 

OpenOffice.org does ;)