Lost a new commercial user this week :(

[Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d]

On 12/15/14 12:10 AM, Manu via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On 15 December 2014 at 07:19, Nick B via Digitalmars-d
> <digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
>> On Sunday, 14 December 2014 at 15:03:27 UTC, Sönke Ludwig wrote:
>>
>>> Lastly, when judging all these things, please always try to remember that
>>> almost all the work that goes into D (and vibe.d) is non-profit and everyone
>>> usually only contributes what (s)he is missing. If I would get payed through
>>> a support contract for my work on vibe.d, I could adjust my priorities to
>>> suit the requirements of others more, but like this I still have to somehow
>>> make sure to be able to pay my bills and can't just work full time to help
>>> other (commercial) projects (although I always try to help as far as
>>> possible).
>>
>>
>> Sonke, Can you advise how much a support contract for a individual or
>> company seriously interested in using vibe.d might cost ?
>
> Good point, I think you should really put a price on commercial
> support if you want it to be taken seriously.
> There are lots of companies that wouldn't seriously consider it if it
> DIDN'T cost them some money. If they don't pay any money, it doesn't
> look legit or professional ;)

OH, it's not that AT ALL.

If I base my company, with real investors and people to be employed, on 
someone's code, and I cannot motivate the developers to support me with 
money, then I am in a shaky situation. It's not the lack of 
professionalism, it's the "I can't fix this, and I can't get the author 
to fix it, so we just have to sit on our thumbs until they do, or hire a 
team to figure out how to do it."

Note, this is not in relation to vibe.d, as we don't use it here, just a 
general view from someone who has used a "near-free" project and paid 
the developer to fix some issues/add features. The cost is so much lower 
than me figuring it out myself.

-Steve