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Comment by mikevm | Hacker News Reader

If the software had ads, it'd lose its popularity anyway...

I could have made around $1m in a few months if I'd put installware into PortableApps.com. I used to get offers almost daily. Still do every couple weeks. By the time you start to lose popularity, you've more than made your money, you just have to screw over a few million people in the process.

Off topic here - but thank you so much for PortableApps.com. I actually haven't used it much in the past few years, but it was hugely helpful to me back when I was living in a country with no home Internet connection and only outdated, virus infested software at local cybercafes. PA and the ability to execute programs from a Windows save dialog got me through those years (:

You're welcome. Glad it's helped you out over the years. If you're curious about another way to use it outside of portable drives, much of our userbase is now using it in synced cloud folders (Google Drive, OneDrive, etc) so they have all their apps synced between their desktop and laptop as well as backed up in the cloud.

But you can cash in and leave the software to die like uTorrent authors did for example.

Someone suggested that in the AMA. Take the cash, then fork and let users migrate. OP then used the word "morale".

It is not so simple. Many users would be left on the sidelines and the trust would be damaged forever.

If something like this had happened I would have migrated the machines I maintain for sure but probably not to the VLC fork.

Yeah, when you see that uTorrent is still popular[1][2], after their introduction of ads 5 years ago and the removal of important features like streaming, in a population that know how to torrent. Doubtless VLC with ads will still have an important market share for at least 10 years.

[1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_BitTorrent_clie...

The same people who use uTorrent most definitely use VLC.

Yes, and a lot of them will continue to use it, even if VLC introduces ads, because it's what they are familiar with. I am making the same point as you — I think.

Yes, and I would be a millionaire. But that would not be moral.

Most people today don't even know what moral is.

possible.

He could offer ad free, plus free with ads.

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