Mini vMac varserv is PAID now?

[MacintoshGuy]

what the?

[adespoton]

Looks that way:

A donation of two dollars or more to the Gryphel Project is required. But the first step is to request a free Demonstration version. The Demo version is identical to the regular version, except that the word “Demo” floats around the emulated screen. If the Demo looks suitable, you can then sponsor that variation, and I'll produce the non Demo version. Once sponsored, that variation is available to everyone, under the GPL license.

(No donation is currently required for the Mini vMac 3.5 Beta Variations Service.)

That sounds like a good balance for Paul's side of things... he provides basic binaries, the beta build system, and if you have something custom you want, send him a couple of bucks or be happy with "demo" floating around on the screen.

Remember: he also provides the source code free of charge.

[MacintoshGuy]

I guess i can deal with a floating dialog

[adespoton]

Why not just use 3.5 beta? It's pretty stable and provides way more features than 3.4 stable.

Or, you could send him $2 via PayPal

[emendelson]

$2 is cheaper than most cups of coffee today.

[macplus]

I think that if you pay at least $2 to the Gryphel Project, you should be able to use the Stable Variations Service for free like it was before, because if you must use multiple builds for emulating different machines then you must sponsor every one of them, and you pay even more. Just my opinion of course.

[MacintoshGuy]

where can I find the 3.5 beta variation service?

[gryphel]

where can I find the 3.5 beta variation service?

The Mini vMac 3.5 Beta Variations Service is at

http://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/b_var.html

[gryphel]

I think that if you pay at least $2 to the Gryphel Project, you should be able to use the Stable Variations Service for free like it was before, because if you must use multiple builds for emulating different machines then you must sponsor every one of them, and you pay even more. Just my opinion of course.

I chose the $2 amount so that people could sponsor multiple variations for a still modest sum. I regularly only use around four variations myself. If the amount is really a problem, I could consider allowing sponsoring multiple variations per donation, though it would complicate things. Lowering the minimum donation would mean the percent taken by PayPal goes up sharply, so probably isn't practical.

I don't think it would work to allow unlimited variations, because I expect some people would be helpful and accept requests for variations to pass on. I have no interest in attempting to police that. It might also give people incentive to request more variations, to get their money's worth.

Something to to keep in mind is that this Variations Service is a service - while the cost to produce an additional custom variation is low, it is not zero. (The cost of the web server serving an already compiled variation isn't quite zero either, but it is much lower.)

[gryphel]

Why not just use 3.5 beta? It's pretty stable and provides way more features than 3.4 stable.

Yes, as mentioned in June 11, 2017 news, the main reason for the change is to encourage more people to test the Beta. As far as I know (from months of daily use), it is currently working perfectly, except maybe for rare spurious abnormal situation reports.

On the hand, I would eventually like to develop a viable funding method for an open source project. The most effective method found so far is to just accept donations. But without inducements, donations received are about enough to cover web hosting costs. Which is much appreciated, but far short of covering all costs (like living expenses).

[gryphel]

I guess i can deal with a floating dialog

If I might ask, is the cost of sponsoring a variation an obstacle? That is, would it help if the amount were lower?

Or is the problem in the difficulty of sending money regardless of amount? Would you prefer any other means of donations like Bitcoin, or Patreon, or a check in the mail, or something else?

Thanks for any feedback, from you or anyone else who wishes to give it.

[gryphel]

Mini vMac varserv is PAID now?

By the way, Mini vMac variations are not for sale, instead they can be sponsored with a donation.

The distinction is that the value of the variation is considered to be very small compared to the required donation. Anyone can make their own for free with a bit of time. And producing an additional variation costs me nothing but an even smaller amount of time, on the order of seconds. Another distinction is that once sponsored, a variation is available to everybody, not just the person who sponsored it.

The motive for this distinction is not to evade paying tax, but that I don't think I can cope with European VAT. That is, I wouldn't mind paying the amount of the tax, but there is just too much overhead in figuring it out, with each country different. For one thing, apparently I would be required to find out where everyone lives, with proof. Which I don't consider any of my business. Probably I could just ignore VAT and no one would care, especially since I don't live in Europe. But I prefer to have the Gryphel project follow all laws as best I can.

[24bit]

I feel that gryphel´s move to ask for a small donation is only fair and reasonable.
Just think about the great improvements with MiniVMacII, running with sound and color.
Made a small donation before MacII ASC emulation was ready, when closing down a PayPal account of mine.
Never asked for a custom build though, as I was happy with the ones already available.
The thing is give and take, where taking is working fine, but giving seems to need some practice.

[gryphel]

I think that if you pay at least $2 to the Gryphel Project, you should be able to use the Stable Variations Service for free like it was before, because if you must use multiple builds for emulating different machines then you must sponsor every one of them, and you pay even more. Just my opinion of course.

After increasing automation in the Variations Service to reduce costs, I can now offer something closer to this: as many variations as you can reasonably want for a year for a single donation of ten dollars or more. Where reasonable is defined as up to ten per day, every day. I personally regularly use about five variations total, so hopefully this should be much more than enough.

This is announced in Gryphel Project project news for October 29, 2017.

People's thoughts on this are welcome.

[adespoton]

Thanks; makes sense to me... I still use my own automation to build my copies, and it seems to me that a build service to do something people can do by hand is worth a subscription. Anyone who needs more than that should be compiling it themselves anyway, most likely.

[gryphel]

This past week I have set up a computer dedicated to doing compiles for the Mini vMac Variations Service. A requested variation is now usually available in two minutes, down from hours. This is announced in Gryphel Project project news for November 5, 2017.

[ClockWise]

Hey, I got my sponsor code!