[Bishounen]

Personally, I think that the Palm App catalog is for Pay or subscription apps. If someone wants to offer an app for free through the App Catalog they, of course, can. But otherwise the Palm App Catalog is the more appropriate place for more commercially oriented apps.

If you are a developer and you want to charge (or get "donations" @ aonic) for your app I think you should just go get it approved by Palm and put in the App Catalog where payment can be managed in a trustworthy and safe manner.

I believe that the Homebrew Catalog should be kept free, and preferably OSS. What does the rest of the Palm community think?

[Smubeht]

bishounen (help·info)), is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)".

Will settle the last choice which i would have chosen had I not had access to the Oh so Awesome! Google.

Agree that paid apps should go on Catalog and free/potential for donate apps on Homebrew.

[jdale]

In my opinion, if you're looking to make a profit off the Pre, you should be working with Palm. Take your app to the App Catalog. Otherwise you are taking advantage of the work Palm is doing, and probably of their SDK and other tools as well, but not helping them in return. Again in my opinion, a donation that is mandatory to get the program is not a donation, it's a payment.

I would make an exception here, though, for apps that Palm will not approve, like MyTether, and probably WebOS QuickInstall, FileCoaster, PreLoad, PreUpdate, etc. If you're willing to work through Palm but they won't let you, do what you want. No reason to allow Palm to decide what apps should and shouldn't exist. If we wanted someone to make our decisions for us we could get iPhones.

[Bishounen]

bishounen (help·info)), is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)".

Will settle the last choice which i would have chosen had I not had access to the Oh so Awesome! Google.

Agree that paid apps should go on Catalog and free/potential for donate apps on Homebrew.

Aww, you gave it away!

[WoodWulf]

I would agree that the App Catalog should be the place for pay and subscription based apps. However, that does not mean that free apps shouldn't be in the App Catalog. Especially since there appears to be a limit to the number of apps that can be installed via Homebrew because of where it has to store them.

Additionally, I would think that being in the App Catalog means that there is some level of review/approval by Palm from a stability and security standpoint. While that might be an incorrect assumption on my part, I would bet that I'm not alone in that perception.

Homebrew is a fantastic way for developers to get apps out to users and potential customers. The beta testing done from there to find and fix bugs or weed out apps that no one is really interested in is probably a good way to ease or remove the burden on Palm.

I also feel the notion that Palm isn't helped by the availability off free apps or that free apps are taking advantage of Palm is untrue. If anything it would draw more people to the Pre/webOS device which means Palm can sell more. Palm will make money if they improve on the strong platform they now have and offer a quality product. Sure, a percentage of app sales will help Palm funding, but free apps won't hurt Palm.

[precrack]

if u vote no u're one cocky sob

[L-Boogie]

I believe that all apps should cost money these things cost time and money to develop even the homebrew apps, if I was a programmer I would want to see returns on my investments and my time.

[cjdaniel]

For finished apps, that are working and the author wants to charge, he she should have every right. App store or home brew.

[Kyusaku]

I go with choice #1, at the moment Palm has said they plan to keep their catalog as open as possible to submissions without infringing on other licensed applications. Only until the point when Palm begins to refuse useful and helpful apps that anyone can install should we reconsider the first option.

Obviously there are special gray area cases like MyTether(which I have donated to) where it is somewhat of a pay app, but would never see the light of day in App Catalog because of networks like Sprint trying to limit such features. But rare applications like this shouldn't really sway one's vote. Just because an app is free doesn't mean donation is not an option. There are plenty of free applications on multiple platforms that suggest a donation if one really enjoys an application. And that format should remain with homebrew, if an app will be free forever and can't make it into App Catalog, consider a donation for the hard efforts of the developer, if it really becomes an app you cherish.

[jbg7474]

I said homebrew should not necessarily remain free because I think there should be other ways for developers to charge for apps without depending on Palm. I want Palm's App Catalog to do well because it is the easiest, most convenient, and best operating way to get apps, not because it's the only way to get apps. I'm just against monopolies in principle.

[Dr.Grace]

I said homebrew should not necessarily remain free because I think there should be other ways for developers to charge for apps without depending on Palm. I want Palm's App Catalog to do well because it is the easiest, most convenient, and best operating way to get apps, not because it's the only way to get apps. I'm just against monopolies in principle.

Right, there should be another way for developers to distribute paid apps besides the Palm catalog.

[Bishounen]

Well, so far opinion is running roughly two to one against allowing pay apps in the Homebrew section. If you haven't voted, please do so, I want to get an accurate feel for community opinion.

[Bishounen]

Just a little bump to keep this poll in view.

[Bishounen]

Bumpitty!

[punzada]

I'm a fan of FOSS software and believe that keeping homebrew as open as possible is always the best possible choice.

As a direct request to homebrew developers: Please open your code, let us aspiring developers learn and build off what you have been able to accomplish, the palm sdk so far is quite lacking and trying to build something nice isn't easy for us new to the game and every example bit of code, every open project that we can help contribute or learn from will help the community better as a whole.

I am not saying don't make money off your software, accept donations or sell a version with say professionally designed graphics or a tie-in with an online service but help out the community as well with opening your code (or if you really can't as it's a foundation and your goal is monetary - at least help other developers with an idea of how to accomplish what you did, write a wiki, post on sourceforge, ANYTHING is a help).

I believe FOSS and closed source software can coexist nicely, and I believe that a FOSS program with a 'software as a service' model can also be very lucrative. It's in my personal opinon that homebrew should be open and the official app store for 'approved' freebies and pay-for apps, HOWEVER I believe that we should embrace ANY project rejected by the official app store if the time arises and it helps the community as a whole.

[93akkord]

All apps should go to the App catalog if we want Palm Pre and the WebOS Platform to grow....Free or Paid.

I don't mind apps going homebrew until they get approved, but we all benefit if we can get as many apps as possible in Palms app catalog.

[Bishounen]

Well, it looks like Option one is well in the lead.

Interestingly, over the last month or so the "file roller" app has fallen into disuse and been replaced with the "PREWare" installer. the PREWare installer is OSS ONLY, so no closed source apps may e distributed using that installer.

The PREWare guys even have an improved version of My Tether 1.5 available that will install without rooting! (You didn't actually think that there was THAT much difference between 1.5 and 2.0 did you?) So you can have the best of all worlds, free of charge and all OSS.

Looks like FOSS wins!