What alternatives do people have to monetize software in a more ethical way?

I particularly don’t understand the funding that some software receive. What they have to grant to receive those funds?

I also search for some type of monetization “model” better than donations, but more ethical than ads.

If it’s too much to explain I would be grateful for terms or books that I could search later.

  • Renohren@lemmy.today
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    5 hours ago

    Paid builds. You get Access to the source code but you can either build yourself or pay a small amount to have a packaged built and updated whenever.

    I also like the twice a year nag screen thunderbird or Wikipedia uses (KDE was right to start doing it too, in my books).

    I don’t believe a small donate button in the “about” section of the settings screen is of any use.

    • HappinessPill@lemmy.mlOP
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      3 hours ago

      Some projects try to use a funding bar, that is shown to the user, when the funding is in risk the users know and donate more. The nag screen is effective, but if you are a donor already it can become somewhat annoying.