A few days ago I made the firm decision about switching to “subscriber only” for the most popular piece of software at my Launchpad archives (or “PPAs”) which is FFmpeg. In the days since that decision and the uploading of new FFmpeg builds there has been quite a flurry of people suddenly communicating with me via email (and other means).
There have many very positive and supportive messages in the recent days, including numerous new people choosing to donate and support my work (big thanks to all of you who have done so, you are directly helping me to survive!). But, there have also been a few critical messages as well, some quite negative and even openly hostile towards me about this change.
As a public response to all these many new communications, and to give some more background about the situation, this article will reflect on why the transition to “subscriber only”. Engaging some level of philosophical discussion is necessary for it to be fully clear why I’ve made this recent change. If such discussion is not your “cup of tea” (yes I am Australian, and do enjoy a cuppa!) then perhaps this article isn’t for you. However, for those who are up for a fuller consideration about the whole matter, read on.
Since being a child I’ve observed a sad fact about our particular species. Most people just take, and never truly give. Direct monetary exchanges are not what I’m referring to here, where an agreed upon amount is given with the expectation of certain goods or services in return. What I mean with the term “truly give” is about giving that is primarily based on a real and genuine heart desire to help others, and help the world be a better place for everyone (and yes, there is often even monetary exchange as part of that). In all my experience of people not many demonstrate such “true giving”.
As stated in a previous article the entire “SavOS” project has been organic. There was no pre-meditated “plan” to make a new and better operating system or any such thing. The project began with my personal heart desire to share many hours of work I was already doing on building some new pieces of software for my own computers. To leverage my already ongoing efforts by using the Launchpad service was an attractive and intelligent idea, allowing me to fairly easily give positive benefit to many others.
Knowing that background it is interesting to consider some overtly hostile comments from a particular person who repeatedly emailed me in recent days. This evidently very upset person has directly accused me of both of the following: trying to set some kind of “trap” for users of my work; and trying to get people “hooked” on the software builds that I’m doing.
These accusatory comments are very telling indeed, and I’m glad that this person wrote them. Not because I enjoy hostile and false accusations being thrown at me, as I don’t enjoy that at all actually! But due those comments giving some good context for part of this particular article.
The clear fact is that the only “trap” I set in this whole “SavOS” effort was for me! To explain, it’s now been two and a half years since I first published requests for donations at my Launchpad PPA site. No such requests were even published for the first full year of the work. By then some using my work were encouraging me to setup avenues of donation. Plus, it had also become clear that I did need income back from the huge amount of hours and work that I was putting into the project, purely as a matter of survival.
After publishing requests for donations a few dozen people did start doing so over the following months, with just a handful of those people being the source of most of the total amount. In the past year, though, the number of users was rapidly increasing but the percentage of people donating (donors per total users) was steadily decreasing. Meanwhile, I was uploading more and more new software and putting more and more time into the project.
Thus, I did in fact fully trap myself, in a situation something like that of a mouse endlessly running around in a wheel. With the electricity generated by that wheel then being used for the benefit of all kinds of other people. But without near enough sustenance being given back by all those other people, for that significant “generating” effort that I have been putting in.
Due to my giving nature as a person I’ve been as patient as possible with all the now tens of thousands of users (based on recent download statistics), to see if there might be any kind of voluntary notable increase in donations. Repeatedly I’ve publicised that I need donations to continue the work. For many months a pinned comment on my Twitter feed requested that blog owners linking to my work be respectful enough to mention me by name, and to ask their readers who can afford it to support me via donation.
Being patient to see if more people would donate was certainly not based in any naivety. As stated already I’ve been aware since being a child that most people don’t readily give. Being patient was largely an experiment on my part, to see if “maybe this time” people will demonstrate a different, better, more human, and more giving disposition. This “experiment” to see if maybe people would voluntarily be more giving this time is now complete.
The results of the experiment of patiently waiting are in, and sadly people were not any more voluntary with their giving relative to my PPA efforts than in almost all other situations I’ve observed in my life. So from here on it is very much a matter of survival for me. Given that the Launchpad work has been my main “day job” for three and a half years, and given that I’ve barely made any income from it at all, the situation had to change and now. Hence, transitioning to “subscriber only” FFmpeg.
So there are now evidently a number of people “out there” who are reacting and upset, with some even being so aggressive that they write to me telling me what I “should” be doing in this situation (even when they have never donated a single dollar to support the work!). The mentioned comment about being “hooked” is very telling, as that word implies addiction. Many of us (me included!) are at least somewhat addicted to our computers these days (including all the handheld “dumb-you-down” phones, which are of course just small computers) and to all the software running on them.
Seeing all the negative impact of these computer “toys” on our species is distressing for me, as I am someone who actually cares about the quality of character described by the word “humanity”. Given that I’ve also made a lot of income in my life from exactly such “toys” it may seem contradictory to express such distress (and note that most of my income from computers was decades ago, when I was doing systems admin/engineer work with proprietary software). However, I’m also someone who has at times taken weeks long breaks from touching any computer at all (including phones). Taking such breaks is simply good for the spirit and well-being of any of us.
How many people are there these days who almost never even engage a real face-to-face (not video) conversation of any depth with anyone at all? Vast numbers of us are now so glued to little screens almost all day long that we are missing out on most of the real and fundamental enjoyments of being alive. For instance, such as the inherent enjoyment of quietly sitting alone in a forest and simply breathing the fresh air.
Is my effort with Launchpad and all this software uploading actually for the good of our race? Or am I only serving an often quite negative addiction, such that people get “hooked” on the software that I upload, and then write me abusive messages if the steady supply for their addiction is taken away? These are real questions I am reflecting on, being a philosophical person.
In relation to my firm decision about changing to “subscriber only” for FFmpeg it is simply necessary for my survival, as already stated. To those of you “out there” who are upset, complaining, and otherwise put out by the fact that I’ve made this change, there are two questions I pose to you here:
1) What “day job(s)” do you do for your main income, ie. the money you earn to buy food, pay bills, pay rent (or mortgage), support your family (if you have family to support), cover healthcare costs, and so on?
2) Would you be fine with doing the “day job(s)” for far less than a poverty level hourly rate, say US$1 per hour, and would such an hourly rate allow you to actually survive, meaning buy food, pay bills, pay rent, etc?
The second question is of particular relevance, and I’m quite certain that none of those who are so upset about “subscriber only” FFmpeg would be answering that question with a “yes” (and in fact almost no one at all would probably answer that question with a “yes”). Yet those very same upset and clearly self-entitled people expect me to be fine with such income! As if I’m their literal slave or similar, who is somehow expected to do all this work that they benefit from on a daily basis, but with no reciprocity ever!
It is a very big problem that so many people in this world these days have such obvious double standards. Meaning that so many people these days expect someone else to do something, but would never do any such thing themselves. Such hypocrisy, or duplicity, or falsity, is unfortunately one of the key ruling forces on this planet right now.
Almost all of the politics going on in basically every country on Earth at this time is fully based around such hypocrisy. Where “rulers” expect the “masses” to fully restrict and limit their lives in this, that, and the other manner, based on all the new “diktats” being enforced all over the world. But, meanwhile those very same “rulers” generally do absolutely none of those things themselves! This is an unfortunate fact of life these days.
With reference to the above comments on hypocrisy, here’s a challenge I am putting on the public record to all those who are complaining, upset, or put out by “subscriber only” for FFmpeg: please devote several thousand hours of your own life and energy over the next few years to building your own impressive set of PPAs, which however many thousands of people use and benefit from daily, and gladly do all that work for US$1 per hour (or the equivalent in whatever your country), and show us how all how to do such a massive effort in a better fashion than I am doing. Thanks in advance!
As a footnote to this article, the word “impressive” in the above paragraph was actually used about my PPAs by a long-time Launchpad contributor. He emailed me in mid-December 2019, which was only a few months after I began the whole PPA effort, and kindly said: “I just saw your set of PPAs and just wanted to say they look pretty impressive!” This coming from someone who has contributed however many hours over a number of years to his own Launchpad efforts, with a large set of excellent PPAs himself.
In the same email this long-time Launchpad contributor sent me he said: “Just a small note of caution from a slightly jaded maintainer — watch out for people who make requests and expect your time for free.” Then he suggested I request a small donation from those wanting work from me, to “weed out” time wasters. He pointed out that even having to spend $1 will often put off the worst of “freeloaders” (his word), though he suggested I request either $3 or $5 as a more realistic minimum for such donations.
Mentioning the email and comments from another long-time Launchpad contributor gives additional context for this article. Specifically, it’s very clear that I am not the only one who has experienced this quite stark lack of reciprocity that happens with large numbers of Launchpad PPA users.
Such lack of reciprocity (people giving something back in return for what they are receiving) is a key reason that the entire free software movement has not become a much more massive global phenomenon. This has been stated in my own words on the main page of my Launchpad site for years. Far more people using free software need to support (via donation) the work of those spending significant time making that software available.
One of the saddest parts for me about this whole change to “subscriber only” is that many people who are living in less developed countries (the so-called “third world”) with extremely limited funds will now not have access to FFmpeg or the software at my PPAs depending on it. People with very low incomes in less developed countries have a legitimate claim for free software, and knowing that fact well has been one of my key motives to keep all of the PPAs (including FFmpeg) fully and freely available to all.
However, for those in less developed countries to have access to my work for free would have needed many more of those who live in “developed countries” (the so-called “first world”) to voluntarily carry their fair share. Meaning more “first world” inhabitants with much higher incomes would have voluntarily needed to provide the financial support for me to continue the work. It is unfortunate that this did not happen. Thus, FFmpeg is now for “subscribers only” and all those who want to have continued access to my new FFmpeg builds will need to directly support the work.
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