There is no price "up front" because you get to define the price (the model is taken from Radiohead's release of "In Rainbows", actually). What non-sketchy model do you have for a demo version? We used to make one that simply didn't save your plugin settings, but then realized that users could accidentally destroy an existing session like this. So we switched to "silence after 10 mins; ask for more time; silence after 5 mins; ask for more; silence after 2 mins; ask for more; silence after 1 min; ad infinitum". If you've got a better for how to create a demo copy that has some incentive for the user to change to the full one, I'm all ears.
And as you note, you don't know what the "something that was more sustainable is", whereas I've been doing this for 16 years, and have been through almost every "how to make money with open source" idea that there is. The vast majority don't apply to niche software, even on the odd occasion that they work for some other things.
I've made a living (of some kind) from working on Ardour for nearly 8 years now, and worked on it without need of income for 8 years before that. I think i'm
And as you note, you don't know what the "something that was more sustainable is", whereas I've been doing this for 16 years, and have been through almost every "how to make money with open source" idea that there is. The vast majority don't apply to niche software, even on the odd occasion that they work for some other things.
I've made a living (of some kind) from working on Ardour for nearly 8 years now, and worked on it without need of income for 8 years before that. I think i'm