Operation Sugar-Daddy

[David J Patrick]

Derek Neighbors wrote:

>As a long time user of GNUCash...
>
> However, the end consumer
>doesn't give a crap about that.  They just want what they need.  They
>could care less who gets more resources and what is "fair". ;)
>  
>
That's so true. Not everyone understands (or cares) how open source
software happens, but those of us who do have a responsibility to keep
supporting it, in any way we can.

>  
>
>>That said, personal / business management software is arguably THE
>>gateway application, for linux.
>>
>It holds some people back.  I don't think it is "the gateway"
>application however.  It certainly is important though.
>  
>
Would you agree then, that the lack of such an application is an
impediment to widespread adoption ?

>Many of you may or may not remember that GNUCash DID have a sugar daddy
>(albiet a screwed up one) once upon a time.  Back in 2000 a venture
>capital company called Linux Global Partners (LGP) that sunk money into
>Ximian and other Free Software houses put up money for GNUmatic a
>company designed specifically to develop GNUCash. 
>
Though short lived, was it a positive thing ?

>
>One problem is there was not a sustainable business model around the
>product.  Shrink wrap sales of GNUCash is not highly viable and
>offerring support doesn't really bring in the cash to maintain new
>developments.
>  
>
If a large company was betting millions on the increasing popularity of
linux, and realized that the existence of a solid noob-able financial
app would make the platform viable for a much wider demographic, might
that not be enough incentive to support gC development ?

>>From a perspective of someone that can code and uses GNUCash some
>problems are that it's technology choices are not the kind that attract
>developers.  Working with C and Scheme to do trivial functionality is
>just not how most hackers want to spend their time on an end user
>application.
>  
>
Ahh, but paid professionals will work on whatever they are paid to work on.

>Add to that the amount of gnome 1.4 cruft that needs cleaning and it
>takes a real love for GNUcash to spend time in the code.
>
the gnome2 port will significantly improve the app and the development
environment, as well as making "Operation Sugar-Daddy" more attractive.
djp