A lot of people say they cannot afford USD 60 per month as hobbyists. As a non-user of Fusion360, actually that sounds like a pretty low price. Any engineer that receives a salary of USD 2000 per month could afford it. And yet, many people are saying that they are only hobbyists and cannot pay that; however, at the same time they are saying they are willing to spend $10 per month for a hobby friendly option. There are also many people saying they are running startups or small businesses; they are actually trying to make money but seemingly want to have the software for free.
Fusion360 says they have like 500 000 users. If all of them migrate to FreeCAD and donate $1, that'd be $500 000 which is enough to hire a full time realthunder and other developers to work on PartDesign, Assembly, and 5-axis tools in Path.
Not everybody will jump ship. Assuming just 10% move to FreeCAD, that is 50 000 people. If each of them paid $10, what they say they are willing to pay for a hobby option, then we again have enough money to pay full time developers. Obviously if they move now, many tools aren't available, but with that type of funding, those tools could be available within a year or two, and afterwards FreeCAD will continue being free as it's always been.
So, if you are a Fusion360 user and want a free option, consider donating $10 per year. You may not see the benefits immediately, but if 50 000 of you do it, we may see results in a year or two.
Last edited by vocx on Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
I have subscribed @ FreeCAD Liberapay with something like 65USD/year. I know it is not much, but if there are at least thousand of supporters, it would make a difference.
This Fusion thing which is going on right now is a very big opportunity for you. Be proactive .
I am myself quite curious if there has been any stability improvements over the years I was not here.
Just a note: please make the Donate page somehow more simple and clean, not many users will read through the wiki page to find info what is the main account. People click Donate button to support you, not really to read about that you need time more than money. At least make that "FreeCAD team account" as the main button/element at top of the page.
dsaiko wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:21 am
Just a note: please make the Donate page somehow more simple and clean, not many users will read through the wiki page to find info what is the main account.
