What is Reddit's opinion of bVNC Pro: Secure VNC Viewer?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Would it be possible to add a donate button below the install button in the software centers of major distros?

I think one reason paying for free (as in freedom) android apps such as

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iiordanov.bVNC&hl=en_US

works well is that there is very little friction to paying. That and the larger potential user base of course. Making this easy would go a long way. Similarly to how netflix, steam etc. reduced piracy by being convenient

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114391-Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Piracy-Is-a-Service-Problem

Yes. If it's functional, but doesn't have a FAB or a slide out menu etc etc I couldn't give a flying toss.

See the reviews of bVNC, VXConnectbot or rsync for Android.

That seems like it is conflating free as in cost and free as in the sense that matters.

You can definitely sell free software. For instance bvnc pro: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iiordanov.bVNC&hl=en_US is about 5 dollars and GPL.

I understand that it is harder to monetize than proprietary software, but "hybrid" or open core also has its drawbacks (why should I contribute if it is only partially free?).

I think the model used by some GPLed android apps is worth supporting. See for example

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iiordanov.bVNC
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iiordanov.freebVNC

Both are pretty much the exact same FLOSS app, but one is gratis and the other is $5. Since it is really convenient to pay, you might as well, as also noticed by steam for example: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114391-Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Piracy-Is-a-Service-Problem

That said, many people in this community have a healthy aversion to centralization and it is somewhat difficult to fairly split up money received, as people saw with the PR fiasco of elementary OS a while ago.

For that reason, I think it would be best to first tackle payment infrastructure and distribution for

• FLOSS and gratis
• FLOSS and paid

and only afterwards worry about the proprietary ones.

As an example Krita is sold on steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/280680/Krita/

Or you can have listings like

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iiordanov.bVNC&hl=en_US&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iiordanov.freebVNC&hl=en_US&gl=US

Or you can do it like most windows software, where you sell it on your website. For example Wolfram Mathematica costs about 600€ and gives you an installer to download.

For reference, you can buy GPL software on android, e.g. bVNC Pro is GPL and about $5 . You can also buy OpenSuse or you can buy Krita on Steam or the MS Store.

> The fact most distros don't support commercial software in their repos - even if said commercial software is using the GPL license - doesn't help.

Source? Handling payment infrastructure, compliance etc. is quite a bit of work and not something a mirror could do, but I don't think any distro said anything against that.

> forcing them to either compile from source, to go back to Debian or for convenience buy the same software again, from the Manjaro repo

Why? License keys are a solved problem.