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Cyberduck is free on the website but for 14.49£ on the app store!!

Should a free software up on the net, be charged on the app store?

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    34
calliope8muse

calliope8muse

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 29, 2009
12
0
London, UK
I have always remembered cyberduck being free under an open source licence and as far as I am aware that means that one should not make money out of it by commercialising it, perhaps only by donations..as is the case if you go to their website and download it.

Getting the app from the App Store is a different case ALL TOGETHER, you have to pay and there is no link taking you back tot the website itself. Now, this is cheeky I think or hope I am wrong!

Essentially the 2 above decribed applications are the one and the same, then why please? how can you commercialise an open source built software?

Does anybody know why? Has anybody noticed it?
 
I just checked it out and the price in the US store is $23.99. I would like to know why it costs money too.
 
Cyberduck is OPEN SOURCE, free software (not necessarily free in monetary terms).

Apple does not approve software which is donation-ware to be on the Mac App Store, so the developer is required to put a price on the software through the store (or list it as free, but in actual fact it is donation-ware) - it is still of course a free download via the CyberDuck website - and if you feel the software is worthy, donations are welcome and encourages further development of the software.
 
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Cyberduck is a brilliant piece of software, and easily worth $23.99. The developer (David Kocher) has put in countless hours of work on this app and has every right to try to make money from his work, *especially* as he has generously made this app available free and open source.

By charging a price on the Mac App Store he is giving consumers have a choice, download it from the web site for free, and optionally make a donation, or buy it from the Mac App Store and get the added convenience of the instant purchase and installation.

There is a reasonable argument that someone may pay on the app store without realising they could have got it free. A little research (a single Google search) by an interested buyer would reveal this very quickly, however.
 
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Not the first time shady developers tried to charge for free software.

$24 is just silly. $1 and people will buy.
 
ScoobyMcDoo said:
How is making money for the work that one does considered shady? I get paid for the software I write - does that make me shady?
Click to expand...

There was a recent case where a third party tried to charge for open-source game.

Not saying developers should not charge. I buy plenty of iOS and some Mac apps. But try to over-charge App store users is just lame and ensures the developer won't ever see any money from me.
 
I'm all for them overcharging people who are too stupid and lazy to search for their website, and would rather have things spoonfed to them via the Mac App Store
 
Consultant said:
There was a recent case where a third party tried to charge for open-source game.

Not saying developers should not charge. I buy plenty of iOS and some Mac apps. But try to over-charge App store users is just lame and ensures the developer won't ever see any money from me.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree that it is very shady to attempt to make money from someone else's work.

$15 doesn't seem that exorbitant, but if it's not worth that much to you, then by all means avoid paying it. I still don't think it makes this developer shady. Personally, I probably would have chosen a smaller price point and hoped for enough volume to make some cash; but that's just me.

Truly, what he provides is functionality that, in my opinion, should be built into Finder anyway - but that's a completely different topic.
 
nicky0 said:
Cyberduck is a brilliant piece of software, and easily worth $23.99. The developer (David Kocher) has put in countless hours of work on this app and has every right to try to make money from his work, *especially* as he has generously made this app available free and open source.
Click to expand...
I wish more people would focus on this, and less on the fact that even though you can optionally purchase the app from the App Store, it's still available for FREE.

Some people will never be pleased. I've been using Cyberduck for years, this guy deserves to make some money.
 
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Littleodie914 said:
Some people will never be pleased. I've been using Cyberduck for years, this guy deserves to make some money.
Click to expand...

I recently moved away from Cyberduck because I had a lot of problems with it not making connections when I wanted to transfer files. I would try to upload the file and then just hang there never actually starting the transfer. This happened from time to time with versions and it never seemed to be stable enough to use reliably. I found that if I was sending more then 5 to 10 files it would ALWAYS get hung-up and I would have to go through and figure out which files were not sent and do them one at a time. I loved the interface and how it worked, very nice, but when putting files on my server, it was always a pain in the ass.

I switched to Filezilla and it works perfectly; but just not as slick as Cyberduck.
 
Not

calliope8muse said:
I have always remembered cyberduck being free under an open source licence and as far as I am aware that means that one should not make money out of it by commercialising it, perhaps only by donations
Click to expand...

That's actually not what open source means.
 
nicky0 said:
Cyberduck is a brilliant piece of software, and easily worth $23.99. The developer (David Kocher) has put in countless hours of work on this app and has every right to try to make money from his work, *especially* as he has generously made this app available free and open source.

By charging a price on the Mac App Store he is giving consumers have a choice, download it from the web site for free, and optionally make a donation, or buy it from the Mac App Store and get the added convenience of the instant purchase and installation.
Click to expand...

But is is right that he's charging money for an open source application. I will not deny the hard work, but he the author opted not request $$ and he himself embraced open source. Now he's changing his mind and he's charging for free software. That doesn't seem right.
 
maflynn said:
But is is right that he's charging money for an open source application. I will not deny the hard work, but he the author opted not request $$ and he himself embraced open source. Now he's changing his mind and he's charging for free software. That doesn't seem right.
Click to expand...

Not quite true. If you get the free version, it will ask the user for a donation. If you make a donation, you get a donation key which turns off the requests. So the author has always been trying to make an income from this. The Mac App Store is just another approach he is taking to try to get income.

If someone goes to the app store and searches for FTP app, Cyberduck will come up. He's looking for a piece of that market. Good luck to him.
 
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So to summarize what's already been said and to add more to this.

Open source does not mean free. Open source merely means the source is open and you can see it and work with it if you choose. It doesn't not mean the author(s) cannot charge for that software. Look at many of the various Linux Distributions as an example. RedHat used to sell their distribution on CDs and the whole package was somewhere around $50. That included TONS of open source software on the disc. Yes, you can typically download those distributions for free, but that doesn't mean it needs to be free.

Next, to put an app on the app store costs money. You need to have the $100 iOS developer account (per year) to put an app or apps on the store. SO... all you people complaining... not only do you expect the author to make the app for free, but you also expect to see him fork out $100 to put it on the app store as well? Wow... that is what I call "special." As in, maybe you should ride the MacRumors short bus.

The author can charge whatever he wants. End of story. You don't like it? Download the donationware version of the app on the website.
 
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open-source (word) means the source-code is open.
open-source MEANS usually you don't pay for it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I could write and sell an application and later choose to open source the code. That would allow others and myself to benefit. It doesn't oblige me to stop selling my application.

Open source software is not the same as free software ("free as in beer" or "free as in speech"). This understanding of the difference has existed for decades.

Consultant said:
Not the first time shady developers tried to charge for free software.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty shady post about a respected developer.
 
This is a resurrection of an ~11-year old discussion thread! Surely a MR record! 🤣🤣
 
Ha! I only noticed the date on the last post. Just saw the thread pop up on the front page and couldn’t resist. My bad
 
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