Financial support for the Blender Foundation

General Forums Blender Development Discussion
23

Tbh I think they have to change a bit the approach.
Blender is not anymore the little FOSS software it was 10 years ago, now it reached a user base that don’t really care about the GNU or FOSS mentality, those people see a free software and that’s it, a free software to be used for free.

Also the BF way is a bit controversial, one one hand they want to make a software that must be free at all extends, which is very cool, don’t get me wrong, but on the other hand they keep asking money.

So I’m a bit confused, the whole monetization system is merely based on the sense of guiltiness? The software is free for all, but please donate 25$ a month.
How to draw the line of who should donate and who not?

What happen if no body donates anymore? AFAIK in BF at the moment there are people with family, people with years of experience, people that need the money to pay the bills.

I think Blender should be at least more clear here, like:**"hey do you work with Blender? do you use it every day? Yes? please land us 25$ and we are square, thanks! **
Do you use it by time to time, 5$ at every new release it’s ok"

I don’t think it is possible to run a company of the size and scope of Blender Foundation and merely rely on the good heart of the users because, simply enough, most people don’t care and begging for money at every download makes Blender looks as -not very professional- and untrustworthy, plain and simple.

BF did and amazing job in terms of scale up in the last few years, it’s really impressive, but I think they reached their peak in terms of donations, there are literally hundred of thousands of active users and only 5k donators.

I don’t have a solution for this, but I’m sure they can take a look at what other companies are doing, such as Epic with Unreal Engine or Black Magic Design with DaVinci Resolve.

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24

A portion of everything you buy in Blender Market goes to Blender. Considering how many add-ons I have I have paid 100’s for this free program :wink:

And let’s not forget that a lot download to try it. Some cannot handle all the tabs, I know I started blender 5-6 times before I got comfortable and settled in.

What Blender is doing is GREAT! The world does not need another rentware! Those that can afford, donate… those that can’t should not be penalized. Keeping it 100% free opens the doors to so many that cannot afford fee based software.

Closing doors/opportunity is not what Blender is all about.

We as users should start producing more in Blender professionally. Show the world that Blender is just as good as any paid/professional (cough cough) software in it’s category. :+1:

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25

Company != Foundation.

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26

I hope this is not in response to my comment, otherwise you totally misunderstood what I wrote.

27

I don’t think most of us regularly contributing to Blender funding are doing it out of a sense of guilt. Nor do I think the funding model is built on trying to guilt trip people. We do it because it is something hugely important for us and our work and we want to help it get better and want it to thrive.

The real free in Blender is freedom from forced subscriptions and licensing stresses. The freedom of being able to run multiple versions. The freedom to customize. The freedom of an open road map that you as a user and community member can actually be involved with and have input on. The freedom of knowing you have complete ownership of your own work and it is not locked up behind a monthly pay wall and that you loose access should you not be able to make that monthly payment. I think most who have had to deal with so much of the mainstay commercial software for creative work knows what a big deal and liberating freedom this all is.

We support Blender development because it is the sensible thing to do. It’s mutual self interest.

Even so I do wish more people contributed.

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28

Everytime there is a serious discussion about money everybody get triggered and become extremely naive.

You missed the point that the % i of people that are subscribe is probably 1% of the total users.
So we are in the realm of wish and hope. you don’t pay bills with that, you don’t even make realistic d mid/long term plans.

How do you think you can keep experienced programmers without the ability to provide good salary compared to other company?
I hope you guys do not expect to have people working for full time for free…

Anyway my point was not on how to rip off users but be conscious about the state of the things, the donations are not growing while the user base is.

There is Linux, Epic, Blackmagic and other companies that offers free or Foss software for free and they managed to have good revenues, so I think Blender should look at them too.

Have a good day.

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29

Blackmagic’s main business focus is digital camera and broadcast hardware; Epic - games and licensing.

So the “free stuff” is heavily supported by all the core business that isn’t free stuff.

Blender - there’s nothing to sell beyond the only product they make (except socks and keychains in the gift shop), which is free now and forever. So not the same situation.

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30

Don’t hate the socks- without a doubt the coolest pair of socks I own :wink:

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31

I wonder how Linux or Mozilla do.
There is Blender Studio, but I think it’s a totally separate reality and I don’t think is actually supporting the Blender development it self.

If they had better merchandise I would actually buy something. :sweat_smile:

32

Linux, no idea. Mozilla has a advert deal with Google… was over $500 million in revenue in 2021.

Merchandise can be risky. You have capital involved in creating it (the actual socks), then you have to hope you actually sell them (with shipping costs) at a price that justifies even doing it in the first place. And in my experience with this, the number of people who SAY they would buy an item is 10X more than the ones that actually DO purchase it, once you offer it. And there’s just not a lot of profit in socks and tshirts.

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33

Yeah, I don’t think indeed a software house should make its living by selling goodies. :joy:

34

I think we need system to let users know what they donate for.
example.

This one " UV editor and 3d viewport selection sync per default"
its been over 4 years why not add a fund for this ?
"to hire a dev to handle it we need around 10k "
Since I know my donation will go in development the UV issue. I will put even more money for it.
same goes for scaling issue or any other ideas that been thrown for years.

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35

The only way i will donate to the blender is by purchasing addons in blendermarket.
And in the current state i will not make a direct donation.

Here’s why:
Right from the start, and by saying “start” i mean all the things which i saw in the oldest versions of blender (pre 2.7 versions) and till today i never saw the real pursue of developers to match the so called “industry standard” except the few spots.
But what i saw and hear many times is intension to live in a way which can be described like “we would move our own way and have a lot of fun in the process”, because “blender have its own way”.

Well. Cool. But if someone want to hanging around and having fun - no one should pay for this except the party guys themselves. And thats 100% fair.

36

After seeing the implementation of colored wireframes and left-click selection after more than a decade of staunch opposition (even after thread after thread on this forum complaining about the lack of it only for everything to fall on deaf ears) I would no longer say with certainty that a given industry standard feature and workflow is never going to find its way into Blender.

Even the expectation that people use Python to create new tools (a language more suitable for office and general productivity applications than DCC apps.) is starting to go away with the increased ability to use Geometry Nodes for the task (which not only means much faster tools, but in an artist-friendly format as well).

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37

I tried the pre-2.7 version of blender, and it was like a sad joke. It looked like it was made by someone who had heard of 3D software, but not used it much themselves.

Modern Blender is the only 3D software I use.

So if you’ve not noticed significant improvements in Blender through those years, I doubt anything would satisfy you.

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38

You messed up colors and temperature. I didn’t say there wasn’t any improvements in blender. But if i told, i would also told what most of them wasnt being undercooked.

When people make new software, they look at the competitors and analyzing what they did and why the did something in a particular way. If it something which can/already was patenting - well, you remade it. If not - you mainly just copy this. Not because you lazy, not because you dumb. But because its clearly what someone was already spend time and polishing the tool.
If you dont care and only want to hanging around and have a nice time - then you make it in your way.
This is the exact developing phylosophy of blender developer.

39

That is an insane statement.
Python is the scripting language used in all DCC packages and related software. It’s fundamental to any production pipeline and most, if not all, of the open source libraries used in 3d production have Python bindings.

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40

I didn’t mess up anything. Your point is weak.

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41

Some reasons i can think of

  • We are willing to pay but please blender team should enable some cryptocurrency donation becuase other options are sometimes make issues with country currency. the donation process should be super-smooth.
    Activating paypal account in india takes lot of hassle so user postponed that. Also, most indians dont hold any visa or mastercard (they use native Rupay card) which is also an issue as well.

  • I think apart from current blender development and direct donation,there should be seperate branches dedicated specifically for certain need/groups like archviz improver, character refinement, vfx, 2d animation, NLA editing, sculpting developer, Procedural Geo development. This will allow people to donate to their specific need and once the fund gets collected it should be given to devlop features of that particular industry.
    Maybe from the fund 80% can be assigned to specific industry and 20% can be given to blender developer for general development.

42

Time for another Code quest?

1 Like