<story><title>Preact: Countering the Perception That Open Source Must Be Free</title><url>https://medium.com/open-collective/why-and-how-to-fund-the-open-source-projects-you-depend-on-da62a582307#.m2l03rvjm</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>legostormtroopr</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve had this argument with a number of different open-source groups, and they all come back to the fact that open-source communities don&amp;#x27;t like charging for products or services and try to survive on voluntary donations.&lt;p&gt;I tried to explain that companies and governments (especially governments) just cannot donate money for open-source. In IT, everything has a price and is a line item and needs to be justified. If a company doesn&amp;#x27;t have to pay that $100 for a badge on a website, they won&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;I think the long-term answer for open-source, especially for frameworks and languages, is through open-source IT certifications.&lt;p&gt;Being able to pay for some kind of certification would be a boon for everyone. Developers can show case their skills (and get a tax-deduction on their investment), Employers have a standard they can look for when hiring devs, and open-source communities get money based on the popularity of their projects and can show case who is getting certs or hiring based on them - showing the value of their work.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d gladly pay $500-1000 for a cert (even one I know I&amp;#x27;d easily pass), but have trouble justifying $100 for warm-fuzzy-feelings, even when I know its going to a framework I depend on.</text></comment>
<story><title>Preact: Countering the Perception That Open Source Must Be Free</title><url>https://medium.com/open-collective/why-and-how-to-fund-the-open-source-projects-you-depend-on-da62a582307#.m2l03rvjm</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Swizec</author><text>I like to pay for software I use. Especially if it&amp;#x27;s something I use to make money.&lt;p&gt;But if you don&amp;#x27;t ask me, I won&amp;#x27;t pay. Too many people are afraid to ask. I&amp;#x27;m happy Jason is working towards changing that.</text></comment>