Would you pay to get THAT killer feature in your favourite app developed?

[jazzvibes]

EDIT: I meant to have put in an extra small option, "~$5: I'll add a little to the bounty so the developer has some incentive. It's only one feature after all." Let me know if you'd choose that instead. (or let me know how to edit a poll....:S)

I started a thread to see if there was a way that you could get paid to code open source software. here. (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1312041) I want to know now if you would consider paying a coder to fix that bug, add that feature, write that documentation? I am thinking of a bounty system with a bit of a difference... input/new ideas are welcome!

I'm not asking how much you would like to get payed as a professional developer, as thats another question. How much would YOU offer? Keep in mind, that if lots of people wanted the same feature, they could all chip in to the one proverbial cookie barrel.

EDIT: Keep this in mind! from the other thread:

if more than one person need the same feature, they all can offer $5 . What about it ?5+5+5+5+5+5+5=$35


The poll question refers to That killer feature in your application that you just can't live without (except for the fact that you don't have it now, or using some sort of less than perfect hack). Maybe something like proper .pst importing into evolution (i haven't tried the current implementation). I'm sure you have other killer features (probably more exciting than this one) that you desire...

Also, i want you to consider what your position is? Unemployed? Employed with disposable income? A business wanting to move to FOSS but can't for a lacking feature in one app? How will this affect what might be on offer...

An obvious different scenario would be something like the papercuts run for Karmic, lots of little annoying things would you pay for them? Would it be significantly less? Maybe something like fixing the way scrolling in OO.o Calc works so its intelligent like Excel07 is in speeding up and slowing down. Other examples?

What about writing good documentation, or better yet having someone make a tutorial youtube video?

[jazzvibes]

I know I'm double posting, but I want to point out that many open source developer communities have actually a fairly small number of committed coders who have contributed to a large amount of the project (you can get some pretty nice stats on sourceforge somewhere I believe). Then there are lots of casual coders, and bug submitters. I've seen a ball park figure saying for every 1000 users of a software, there'll be 10 bug submitters, and 1 coder, a 1000:10:1 ratio.

This means generally, the people who claim these bounties will actually be the people who deserve it, ie. the people who are contributing the majority of the code. In theory of course...

[earthpigg]

bump

[ticktricktrack]

I would gladly pay $40 for TextMate. Gedit just isn't cutting it!

[lethalfang]

I'd pay $30 to have a stable version of Kile ported to GNOME.

[Xbehave]

I offered to pay a bit for the m560x drivers but the guy organising the bounty never forwarded the details, I should probably get round to paying up at some point, oops

[hoppipolla]

what killer feature? lol

I am pretty much happy with every application I have on here at the moment! heh :D

[Matthewthegreat]

I would give $50-$100 for a decent video editor open source or not.

[markp1989]

i cant think of any features that i dont have but really need ,but if there was i would happily pay up to $100 depending on the size of the feature i needed, and how much spare cash i had at the time,


or i can just get cheap and start a movement requesting people donate $1 (via paypal) each to to get a bigger bounty for that feature

[jazzvibes]

Firstly thanks to the mods for fixing my poll!


I would give $50-$100 for a decent video editor open source or not.

Glad to hear it. I'm impressed that there are some people out there that realise the enormous value that people are putting in to open source. My background is working in not-for-profits, and I really do understand the value of volunteers. Working with sponsors also means that I understand that putting a dollar amount on the equivalent service is sometimes breathtaking it's so huge. I'm always happy to hear that other people understand this.

Don't get me wrong though, I still very much believe in open source, although I don't have a problem with well managed closed. I am more looking at ways of improving developments of already existing projects. eg: I've just found that some people recommend LiVES, or PiTiVi, or Kino, or Cinelerra for video editing (forgive my spelling of these ... its late), I'd really like to see people actively participating in bug resolution by putting their money where their mouth is and making an immediate tangible contribution, and providing an incentive for the people who can make a difference. Most projects already include ways where you can make a voluntary donation, why not improve this framework and link it to a feature/bug. Like this:

I'd pay $30 to have a stable version of Kile ported to GNOME. Particularly like this because I've used Kile and thought it was pretty good. This is the type of requests I envisage a system like this to have!

aside: I have friends who recommend Texmaker, but I don't know how well it works in Gnome (they're an XP person).


I am pretty much happy with every application I have on here at the moment! heh Awesome, and I see that you are also pretty experienced. I'm presuming you may have actively participated in a project or at least discussed a bug before... so maybe you could actually benefit from a system like this... Or maybe simply you wouldn't need the system because you already have the motivation (and time!) to contribute. This won't be an all encompassing project ... obviously ...

Lastly, given your experience, maybe you have ideas for future developments you would like to contribute to, particularly in areas where you aren't skilled...

[markbuntu]

Is there a web site that does this?
Offers open rewards for features, ports, etc?
If not we should make one.

[jazzvibes]

As far as I know there isn't ... but I am planning on filling this niche... still looking for ideas and if there is a serious need still though...

If you want to help ... keep posting your ideas!! they are hugely appreciated!

[markbuntu]

I found this

http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/default.aspx

But I think the idea is not quite what I had in mind.

[jazzvibes]

I talked about Rentacoder in my original post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8228154&postcount=1), i don't think its well suited to what we are talking about here. Then again, i'm not an expert on the matter.

Rentacoder is mainly for personal use by the looks of it. People needing jobs done. Its not about stimulating development of software.

[-jay-]

dunno but i would pay to have the following ported americas army 2.8 , foobar , utorrent i seriously hate wine

[tkblackbelt]

I would give a 100$ to wine devs if every windows software and game worked in it.

[Jr.Muffin]

I don't exactly have much money to spend, but if there was a feature that I and many others really wanted, then I would have no problem chipping in $20.

[xtremesupremacy3]

I'd pay for webcam support for Pidgin etc outside of aMSN.

What they should do is like what Codeweavers do, develop software but if you think its going too slow, pay to speed it up