Tell HN: I took your advice, quit my job, and am charging money for my software

15 points

15 years ago

Four months ago, there was a huge discussion here on HN about the merits of free, closed-source software and I, a creator of freeware, was in the clear minority: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2185340

Today, I have released an update to my most popular software (millions of users), and have started a commercial licensing program for non-personal use: http://neosmart.net/blog/2011/easybcd-2-1-and-some-big-changes/

Today I am unemployed - last week I resigned to work full-time on my startup and hopefully get things that I've been forever putting off done. I have given this a lot of thought and decided that I would like to give it a try.

Hopefully I will be able to generate enough money from existing commercial users to enable me to continue work on this and take EasyBCD and other software further. I already have three other programs I've written that only need polish and fit to be released under similar licensing terms.

In short, I've realized that giving stuff away for free just doesn't pay (surprise surprise!)

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