preCharge Forums - View Single Post - Is there a place for a One-Man-Show?

StarLab · 08-22-2006

Greetings all.

Last night I got home to find something disturbing. A .NET developer who I have known for several years, has fallen upon hard times. His situation has left him with no Internet access. :(

To protect his good name, I will not mention his One-Man company nor his name. I simply bring this up as a question, "Can a solitary programmer make it in this world of high-end code development?"

Over the years, this individual has developed many freeware and donationware distributions. All of which have been well received. He even got a blurb in a couple magazine publications on a couple of them.

Recently, he poured his resources into developing a WinXP (and was leaning toward Vista) system tweaking/information utility, which again, will remain nameless for the reasons mentioned above. After so many years of providing things for free, he decided to go with a personal/pro version of his work, and offered it at a reasonable prices. He even provides (or did until now) one-on-one support via IRC and newsgroups, but that still didn't seem to be enough.

His application was eventually cracked by one of the high profile cracking groups. He even contacted the cracking team, and told them, "People know right away if they intend to purchase a piece of software. Due to the fact that the tweaking end of utility goes deeply into a users OS, all I ask of you is that it is a CLEAN crack that will not mess up people's computers from using this version of my work."
Whether this was the right approach or not, I cannot say. He was simply trying to protect his project from getting a bad name due to an improper crack.

I expect to see him back in the coming weeks, but for now, his project, and his customers, are in limbo.

So, what do you think? I get the feeling there are similar stories lurking in these forums, so I thought I would run this by everyone to get some opinions, and possibly some solutions.

Sorry for droning on, but this is a good guy who does good work. I would hate to see him throw in the towel as I have discussed the future with him, and his plans are impressive.

Can a one-man development team work? Are independent developers better off joining larger projects to make their ends meet?

08-22-2006	#1 (permalink)
StarLab Forum Management Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Ontario, Canada Age: 46 Posts: 1,464	Is there a place for a One-Man-Show? Greetings all. Last night I got home to find something disturbing. A .NET developer who I have known for several years, has fallen upon hard times. His situation has left him with no Internet access. :( To protect his good name, I will not mention his One-Man company nor his name. I simply bring this up as a question, "Can a solitary programmer make it in this world of high-end code development?" Over the years, this individual has developed many freeware and donationware distributions. All of which have been well received. He even got a blurb in a couple magazine publications on a couple of them. Recently, he poured his resources into developing a WinXP (and was leaning toward Vista) system tweaking/information utility, which again, will remain nameless for the reasons mentioned above. After so many years of providing things for free, he decided to go with a personal/pro version of his work, and offered it at a reasonable prices. He even provides (or did until now) one-on-one support via IRC and newsgroups, but that still didn't seem to be enough. His application was eventually cracked by one of the high profile cracking groups. He even contacted the cracking team, and told them, "People know right away if they intend to purchase a piece of software. Due to the fact that the tweaking end of utility goes deeply into a users OS, all I ask of you is that it is a CLEAN crack that will not mess up people's computers from using this version of my work." Whether this was the right approach or not, I cannot say. He was simply trying to protect his project from getting a bad name due to an improper crack. I expect to see him back in the coming weeks, but for now, his project, and his customers, are in limbo. So, what do you think? I get the feeling there are similar stories lurking in these forums, so I thought I would run this by everyone to get some opinions, and possibly some solutions. Sorry for droning on, but this is a good guy who does good work. I would hate to see him throw in the towel as I have discussed the future with him, and his plans are impressive. Can a one-man development team work? Are independent developers better off joining larger projects to make their ends meet? __________________ Larry [Torn Elements] - Regaining the passion in design. "Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself!" --Terry Pratchett ---- Gorgeous On Life - The world from a Cat's point of view!