Update from 03/02: PayPal donations are possible now.

Update from 03/04: Current information. Please see below.

Update from 03/04: More products added to the offer (MySQL Debugger and several products from Dair Computer Systems)

Update from 07/03 and 08/03: Surgery went well, the tumor is malignant, but no metastasys. Hoping for the best.

I have a personal request to all people willing to help, and in exchange we’ll send you a free license for any of our software titles (Web Log Storming, Agenda At Once or CD Label Designer). Also, we want to thank George Schmidt and Dennis Reinhardt who both wish to join this effort by giving away a license for their products under same conditions: MySQL Debugger, HtmlApp Studio, DialogDevil and TelephoneMessagePad. Thank you, George and Dennis!

A friend’s 5-year-old son, Andrew (Andrej) Knezevic, has, unfortunately, been diagnosed with a brain tumor (dg. tu trunci cerebri). As we live in Serbia, a relatively underdeveloped country, the only possible treatment is a surgical operation that can be done in Zurich (Switzerland). However, the cost of this treatment is nearly 100,000 € that must be paid by his parents (see below for the current information). Needless to say, it’s the kind of money they, or most people here, don’t have. They already contacted various charity organizations, but responses are either slow or negative, and for this little kid every day matters.

That said, I would like to ask you kindly: instead of buying our software, please donate what you can to this family in order to help their boy getting better. There’s no minimum amount – now is not the time to be picky, as every dollar or euro means a lot.

After you do that, please submit a ticket message or leave a comment below and we’ll send you a license key. Please don’t forget to include an amount you’ve donated and the software title you are interested in.

For further information visit a Facebook group page (mostly in Serbian, with few English sentences) and feel free to forward this article to anyone you know (you can simply use Tweet button above or other social network buttons below).

Sincerely,
Vladimir Radmilovic
Dataland Software

Current information

Thank you all of you who helped Andrew in any way, either by donating, spreading a word or both.

03/03: As Andrew’s condition becomes worse with each day, the clinic accepted to do a surgery even though there is no enough money yet. At this moment he’s in Zurich and we are waiting for further news. There’s still need for about 50,000 €, so if you haven’t already, please consider contributing now or forward this post to you friends. Thank you in advance!

03/04: Andrew is currently on the intensive care and he’s feeling slightly better, thanks to therapy he’s receiving. Doctors expect that he will be ready for a surgery in few days. What’s most important, according to information currently available, the main surgeon is optimistic! Let’s hope that everything will be alright soon…

07/03 and 08/03: Thanks to all who participated, the 100,000 € checkpoint is reached and there was enough money for the surgery which took place on Saturday, March 6. Surgery went well but, unfortunately, the tumor is malignant. Later analysis shows that there is no metastasis, which is a good part of the news. Still, Andrew and his family will now need more money to finance a chemotherapy and other treatment, to return debts and regain property they sold. That’s why we will continue with this offer.

Andrew feels much better after the surgery. He’s not in the intensive care room anymore, he’s talking a lot, smiling and doctor is very satisfied how recovery goes so far. He’s a strong boy and we all hope and believe that he will beat the illness!

You can see latest photos here.

PayPal donations

Please go to PayPal transfer form and donate to an email address dmaci _AT_ bluemail.ch (of course, replace “_AT_” with “@”).

Spendenkonto (for donors from Germany)

MATIJEVIC/ANDREJ KNEZEVIC
Kontonr.: 4833783
BLZ : 505 922 00
Volksbank Dreieich eG
Verwendungszweck: Spende für Andrej

Payment instructions for wire transfer

Intermediary Bank/ Correspodent bank

SWIFT-BIC: DEUTDEFF

Name: DEUTSHE BANK AG

City, Country: FRANKFURT AM MAIN, GERMANY

Account whit institution/ Beneficiary’ s Bank

SWIFT-BIC: KOBBRSBGFSO

Name: KOMERCIJALNA BANKA A.D. BEOGRAD

Street: Svetog Save 14

City, Country: Belgrade, Serbia

Beneficiary

IBAN/Account Number: RS35205903101160712320

Name: JELENA KNEZEVIC

Street: Sv.Miletica 6

City, Country: Stanisic, Serbia

In just few days I’ve came across three examples of how “software for free” model hardly works, at least for developers. One of them is tr.im, the service to shorten long URLs. According to their blog, they’ve unsuccessfully tried to find an investor for their service. Of course, without proper funding, why would they spend any more time on it? And moreover, who will pay for hosting and other administrative fees? Second example is a project management / source control service codespaces.com. They recently decided to cease free plan and started charging $3 for it.

Another popular example is a great instant messaging client Digsby. They are trying to find a sustainable reason to continue developing it, and, as it seems, they plan to do that by displaying advertisements. In my opinion it’s a wrong method. So called “adware” model was popular about 10 years ago and it failed miserably. What happened now is that part of the community is actually angry on Digsby management. Can you believe it?

Related joke

One man was giving a $100 bill to a beggar every single day. After some time, those 100 bucks gradually became 50, 40, 30, and finally one day he gave him only $10.

B: Excuse me, sir. Can I ask you something?
M: Sure!
B: How come you always gave me $100 and now it’s only $10?
M: Well, you know, in the meantime I got married and we got a kid, our expenses are much higher now, we are building a new house…
B: A house? You are building a house? With MY money???

There simply must be a way of paying those developer-days/months/years or the whole project is doomed. Just browse some of Open Source repositories and check how many software sits abandoned. Alas, developers must eat too. Some businesses succeeded to persuade Venture Capitalist to initially invest money for the development, but sooner or later this VC will stop throwing funds away and expect the return of this investment. It’s simply how economy works, like it or not. As some have predicted before, this whole “software should be free” bubble will burst, and it’s now becoming evident for those who didn’t believe it.

Before someone says “electrons are free so software should be too”, here’s few considerations to think about:

1. Developer’s time is not free
2. Your time is not free
3. Knowledge (education) is not free
4. Equipment (computers) is not free
5. Electrons are not actually free either (you still must pay for web hosting)
6. Nobody works for free unless someone else pays their bills (parents, for example)

So there’s really no point arguing on this. Lawyers don’t charge just for cost of a peace of paper, taxi drivers don’t charge just for a gas, professional football players don’t play for free, cars are not priced just on value of raw materials – the list can go on and on. So why then some people think that developers should charge just for a CD?

Of course, some free-to-use software will always exist, but in a long term, it must pay off in one way or another. Being it through  consulting and support (applicable for enterprise markets), advertisements, information access (various Google products), offering a premium version, or whatever works in a specific case.

So, people, you have no right to assume to get something for nothing – at least not forever…