Funding MinimServer development

[simoncn]

I started developing MinimServer because I wasn't happy with other music servers and I wanted a better music server too use myself. When I'd got it working, I thought it might be useful to a few other people as well. As they say, the rest is history!

I haven't charged for MinimServer, and I don't want to start doing that. I'm enjoying working on MinimServer, and I'm happy to donate my time. However, I do have some out-of-pocket costs for equipment that I've needed to buy for MinimServer development. The most expensive purchase has been my Mac. I'm very pleased to have this, but it's only used for developing and testing MinimServer. I've also bought an upgraded iPod, which I only use for control point testing.

If MinimServer is going to continue to be successful, I'll need to continue spending money on equipment. For example, I've had requests for add-on packages for various NAS platforms, which would require me to buy some NAS devices for development, testing and support. I wouldn't use them myself because I'm happy with my current NAS arrangements, and this makes me very reluctant to spend money out of my own pocket.

There's been a recent discussion on the Linn forum about a funding model where people who would like a MinimServer package for a specific NAS platform could make contributions towards the purchase of a suitable device. In this case, there would be a very direct relationship between what people give and the benefit they get back. For contributions to a general MinimServer equipment fund, there wouldn't be the same immediate direct benefit to the contributor. These contributions would benefit the whole MinimServer community by helping keep MinimServer moving forward and still freely available.

I'm thinking about providing the opportunity for people to either make a general contribution to the MinimServer equipment fund or make a direct contribution to the costs of a specific project such as making MinimServer available on a particular NAS platform. The latter would require some organizing, as I wouldn't want to accept money for a specific project until enough people had signed up to make that project viable.

I'd be very interested to hear what MinimServer users think about this.

Simon