
Ask HN: Where I can ask for help to rescue a software? - Trung0246
Upon stumbling across this website: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;m8software.com&#x2F;, the &quot;Why?&quot; section said that the software will be no longer maintained due to author&#x27;s cancer. The software in question is http:&#x2F;&#x2F;m8software.com&#x2F;clipboards&#x2F;spartan&#x2F;clipboard-manager.htm. I&#x27;m not really if the author are willing to make the software open-source. Any ideas?<p>To contact the author, the only way I found is over the &quot;contact admin&quot; feature: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;m8software.com&#x2F;forum&#x2F;memberlist.php?mode=contactadmin<p>Since I don&#x27;t have both knowledge and manpower to maintain this, I wonder if anyone on HN can?
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eesmith
You've asked a tough question.

The page says the owner is looking to transfer to business to a new owner. I
presume the owner wants the software to continue to be developed.

If there's an existing customer base, and existing revenue based on
proprietary sales, then that's a monetary incentive for someone else to take
over.

If the software is made open source, then part of that goes away. I have no
idea what the market situation is for that product, but it comes down to
asking what the benefits are.

Yes, there are moral ones (à la Stallman), but "open source" tends to focus on
the software development advantages, eg, more potential contributors, more
popularity leading to secondary income, etc.

In practice, these rarely occur. It's just that it does occur for the most
popular and well-known packages.

So it seems much harder to find a developer willing to take on open-source
development of a package like this, than one willing to keep it proprietary.

At best there might be an appeal to history, "if you aren't able to find
anyone to take it on, then would you release the source in a version that lets
someone in the future see it"?

That's tricky because it's an emotional appeal, at an emotional time, and you
don't seem to have an existing connection to the author to build upon
("stumbling across this website" means you likely aren't even using the
software), nor something tangible to offer.

Now, it's possible that someone here could be interested, but it seems not
only unlikely (few discussions here concern retail sales of Windows desktop
apps, or the underlying technology, and those that know those skills likely
have existing careers), but doubly-unlikely as it seems there's little reason
to think it's worth the effort even to consider the possibility.

