🚀 go-pugleaf

This is a rather specific case, but since I find myself in a similar 
situation, I feel much the same way:

	I have previously released to various nets a shareware program called 
'fzzplot', which was capable of drawing simple plots and performing sumple 
analysis functions (line of best fit, mean & std. deviation, so forth). It was 
a shareware program. 

	I find that if people are not forced to pay for something, they won't. I've 
seen (and heard of) people using my program, and I know perfectly well that 
they haven't sent in the shareware fee. At this point it's worth noting that 
while I request some $ "if you like and use the program", I don't attach any 
moral significance to it. It's just that I pay for shareware, and expect 
others to do so as well. Anyway, the response to my shareware has been quite 
disappointing.

	Now, I'm preparing for release FzzPlot's successor. I may be biased, but 
independent and unbiased people have told me that I should skip the shareware 
and market it commercially. The thing is, this program is quite useful, 
especially to the subset of scientific users who have need of a good plotting 
program. I'm interested in producing "tools to make tools", and less 
interested in receiving monetary compensation for producing them. As you say:

	"The issue for me, by the way, is not whether I can make a pile of money off 
of a program which has a very narrowly defined audience of users, but whether 
I can contribute to the research community without giving a freebie to people 
who care mostly about the big buck."

	While my audience isn't as narrow, my intent is the same. I want to provide 
people with something useful, but if someone's too cheap to pay for it, they 
can go die. I generally enforce this by providing support for my shareware 
products; for example, may suggestions from purchasers of the old FzzPlot have 
been integrated into the new FzzPlot, and those same purchasers will receive 
free copies of the new program.

	Rather than saying "to hell with you if you don't pay", I say "look at what 
you get if you DO pay", even though my privately held opinion is what I state 
above: "if you're to cheap, then to hell with you."

		--Rich