[necessary]

This is a good business perspective, but I don’t really see why this couldn’t be someone’s open source passion project. The comment wasn’t really implying that they needed a paid tool, just a tool that suits their needs and is lightweight. Plenty of the software I use on a daily basis is open source software where you could argue that the economics shouldn’t have been there.

[lelanthran]

> Plenty of the software I use on a daily basis is open source software where you could argue that the economics shouldn’t have been there.

Me too. But the problem with "the economics just aren't there" means that if I cannot get, just from word-of-mouth (say, a Show HN post) 100 users @ $10 once-off lifetime purchase, then this is not a product that is in demand anyway. An open-source/free product that is exactly the same would similarly receive no love from users.

IOW, if not enough users exist for this product at $10, not enough users exist for this product at $0. Your passion product will still result in the dev burning out on the fact that no one wants their passion enough.

[necessary]

Doesn’t that depend on the buyer? I can think of several products that I would only use if free, and would go without if it was $1, $5, or $10. E.g. todo list apps, time tracker apps, budgeting apps.

I think you can argue that, if you have enough demand at $10, that you’ll have enough at $0, but I don’t see how not having demand at $10 implies that you won’t have demand at $0, since usually making something cheaper can change buyer’s minds.

[ozim]

You see the problem in your comment:

why this couldn’t be SOMEONE’S ELSE passion project