In 2011 I wrote a low-end GIS program for Mac, called Magic Maps. The idea for the app was to make a simple, Mac-like alternative to ArcGIS and QGIS that makes it easy to plot points, import Shapefiles, and create chloropleth maps and animations without first wanting to open your veins in a bathtub. It was my first desktop app, so the code isn't great, but it's found a loyal user base over the years has netted over $50k since 2011. Unfortunately, Magic Maps is now suffering from neglect and bit-rot, and some of the users are starting to revolt. At the very least, it needs a bit of work to fix crashes, ensure it works smoothly on Yosemite, etc. I'd do this work myself, but I am putting all my time into another app, and as much as it pains me, I just don't have time to invest into Magic Maps any longer. I'm putting this out there because I'm honestly not sure what to do with the software at this point, and I'd like to hear other people's perspectives. I see my available options as: * Open-source the project. I think open-source works well for a lot of things -- and I've done a lot of open-source work in the past -- but user-friendly software doesn't seem to be a good fit for open-source without ongoing sponsorship. * Try to sell the project. This seems ideal, as I think there's potential for Magic Maps to be a viable business with a sufficiently savvy owner, but I'm not sure there's a market for code that doesn't include a developer or test coverage. * Wind down the project and call it a day. This would be the least amount of work for me, but it hurts me to think about it. It just seems like a waste to throw away all that design and engineering effort -- it's a neat little package and I'd hate to put it in the trash. Have other people been in similar situations? What did you do, and what do you think I should do? Sell it, open-source it, or call it quits? BTW here's the Magic Maps home page: http://magicmaps.evanmiller.org/ |
> I (or we as a company) faced pretty similar situation just a few weeks ago.
> The app is called ______, and it was our first app ever, our child - app that constituted our company brand and still is pretty useful for many small business owners (_______ is an invoicing app, making something like $20k/year on our domestic market).
> Unfortunately(?) business is business, so finally I decided to decline it. Now we’re making some final touches and will release it as open source project - again facing similar problems - the codebase is almost 6y old, app is not trivial, build procedure is not single click etc etc.
> Besides all those risks and problems, I still believe that opening the source code is worth doing. That way we can help other (less advanced) programmers to start their own mac products/businesses. I’m sure that you’ll agree that after a certain point you need to look inside something bigger than a trivial app from examples folder, something that is/was a real thing, something ‘alive'. That’s IMHO a single priceless source of practical knowledge.
> That’s my 10cents :)