
Space Engine - nbaksalyar
http://en.spaceengine.org/
======
hashmymustache
I don't understand the attitude about donations. The developer wrote an awe-
inspiring work of art and has been giving it away without demand for years. He
asks for donations with clear set goals of what they go toward for improving
the software. Take it or leave it.

Yes, an open-source version would be valuable and I invite anyone here to
start one.

~~~
api
It's fine to spend $5 on a cup of coffee, but "information wants to be free"
even if it's the product of years and years of grueling work.

This petulant entitled mentality is vile, especially when it's directed at a
free labor of love like this. If people don't like it they shouldn't use it,
and nobody is making anyone donate anything.

Edit: the thing I'm really responding to here is the holier-than-thou ideology
you see around this topic from time to time, and the negativity directed at
this and other developers for daring to suggest that their work might be
worthy of some form of compensation. It's total nonsense. It's not about some
high-minded "community ideal." People are just being greedy and cheap.

How and under what terms someone releases their work is their choice, not
yours. The only choice you have is whether or not to partake.

~~~
joshuapants
> How and under what terms someone releases their work is their choice, not
> yours. The only choice you have is whether or not to partake.

And all people are saying is that they won't partake or support if it's not
licensed to their satisfaction. There are no license fascists going around
breaking windows to make people conform.

~~~
api
They do it verbally.

I'm the author of a number of open source projects, and some of the messages
I've received are just insane.

The latest thing is... get a load of this... it's now no longer good enough to
give your code and your service away for free. Nope. It has to be free and
_permissively licensed_ , so that anyone who wants to take it closed and put
_their name_ and a price tag on it can do so without compensating you in any
way whatsoever. Anything less and you're not serving "the community."

I have to ask what kind of community this is. OSS was envisioned as the basis
of an information gift economy, not a bunch of "takers." Nowadays the takers
are increasingly corporations, not even individuals.

That's why my larger non-trivial OSS projects are and will likely remain GPL
or similar. I do sometimes release trivial stuff under public domain or
nearly-so licenses, but things that take years of work? Sorry, but you have to
give something back. At the very least you have to acknowledge its authorship
if you use it.

Luckily these attitudes are far from the majority, but I still think it's
worthwhile to call out obnoxious trash for what it is. I've come to the same
opinion with regard to piracy, especially industrial-scale piracy. The thing
that really bothers me is when people actually get holier-than-thou about it.
I have more respect for you if you just say "look, I'm a cheap greedy jerk and
I want free stuff." At least you're admitting it. But please do not try to act
like your wanting free stuff is some kind of grandiose liberal social
statement that's helping make the world a better place, because it's not. At
worst you are helping to devalue labor and destroy peoples' livelihoods. At
the _very best_ you are accomplishing nothing.

The last thing I want the author of something as beautiful as Space Engine to
see is to visit the HN thread about their project and see a bunch of whiny
takers berating them about how they're not allowed to take take take on terms
that please them sufficiently.

~~~
joshuapants
> They do it verbally.

That's exactly what I said. You're free to ignore them if you think that's
best for your project because _you 're_ the one in charge.

------
accatyyc
YES! Everyone should try this. Sometimes I can get lost in it for hours, just
floating around the galaxies...

It's so cool that everything you see, every little star in each Galaxy you can
zoom into and check out. Check the simulated atmosphere of every planet, check
the rough surfaces of every little asteroid. All procedurally generated and
very mind blowing.

------
gfosco
It's not in their poll for new features, but VR support would make this so
much more interesting.

~~~
DanAndersen
Rift support was added in version 0.9.7.2 (
[http://en.spaceengine.org/forum/20-2614-1](http://en.spaceengine.org/forum/20-2614-1)
).

~~~
gfosco
Good to know... I think that should be listed on the homepage. I looked for VR
and Rift, didn't see any mention.

------
rbanffy
License it under the GPL, upload code and all build files (including WIP files
for the Linux version) to Github, and I'll donate.

~~~
morbius
Agreed. It irks me when proprietary software developers ask for donations for
a 'free as in beer' work. Either offer your product as a paid service/item, or
make it open source and free as in speech software. The middle ground is just
annoying.

~~~
robertfw
Then don't donate. It's their project, their time and effort, their choice.

~~~
ggchappell
It is. However:

(1) People who make things (of any kind) publicly available are often not
clear on how the public perceives them. It can be helpful to let them know.

(2) This fellow has obviously put a lot of work into the program. But there
are limits on how far development by one person, in their spare time, is
likely to go. There are two reasonably sustainable development models:
establish a clear funding stream by charging for the product, or release the
source code and do open development. This fellow is doing neither. If people
admire this work, and want it to continue to be developed, then they have an
incentive to encourage the original developer to switch to a more sustainable
model.

and ...

(3) Is there anything wrong with offering a trade? "I'd like it if you did X.
If you do, then I'll give you money."

~~~
benihana
I agree with everything you said. But this isn't what's happening in this
thread. In this thread, a random, semi-anonymous person saw that someone was
offering their work for free and asking for donations, and planted their feet
firmly in the ground and let everyone know that they refuse to donate unless
the code is licensed in exactly the way they like.

~~~
rbanffy
When you say I'm semi-anonymous, I assume you didn't bother to even click on
the profile link. There you'll find more than enough to send me a pizza, if
you are so inclined. I do not hide and I am very public about my opinions.

In fact, I think this project, being closed, is a disservice to the craft of
software creation. It's great work and, yet, all we can see is its results
rendered on a screen. It's also limited to a single operating system and CPU
architecture. Opening it up would enrich other groups and allow it to be
enriched by them.

I place no unreasonable condition on my donation. In fact, it's my donation
and no legally allowed condition should be deemed unreasonable.

~~~
ggchappell
> There you'll find more than enough to send me a pizza, if you are so
> inclined.

TIL that Dominos delivers in Brazil.

Question: How common is it? I.e., do huge numbers of people in Brazil order
delivery pizzas, or is it more of a niche thing?

------
jessriedel
How does this compare to Celestia?

~~~
z3phyr
Its graphically more intensive, with larger volume of data. You can also
explore the yet unseen parts of the universe which are procedurally generated
and imo more detailed.

------
revscat
Are there plans for either an OS X or Linux version?

~~~
sgt
I got really excited about this until I saw it only runs on something called
"Windows".

~~~
sqeaky
What you said was sarcastic, but you make a serious point.

I absolutely refuse to expose myself on the internet to virus and other
malicious digital attacks, that I do not have to be exposed to. Dropping
windows entirely was one of the single best steps I took in minimizing that
attack surface.

I do not have resources to dedicate to having yet another untrusted machine
with expensive software for the sake of one "free" piece of software that
amounts to little more than a game (even though I really like games).

~~~
DanBC
Luckily it (appears to) runs on linux.

~~~
sqeaky
Since it is not open source how do I know it doesn't contain a virus? It would
not be the first time such has happened.

------
mrmondo
Id imagine no Linux support and not being open source would put many people
off from donating, myself included.

------
mesozoic
Looks like it supports mods/addons. Would like a mod that adds Star Wars
planets. Maybe other fictional planets like the Game of Thrones planet.

