Comment by thraway3837
12 days ago
This is a really weird take. OP worked on this during all of their free time for over 10 years. And it finally took off into making a solid revenue for them. This is a rare success story for an indie developer. We should be supporting them. It would suck for anyone to get their life's work stolen and given away for free, which is what is happening here.
-Another indie developer who hopes to have 1/100th the success that Photopea has had.
> "OP worked on this during all of their free time for over 10 years."
And they can have the payoff of not having to do that anymore, isntead of continuing to do that. That's literally the dream!
> "And it finally took off into making a solid revenue for them. This is a rare success story for an indie developer."
Yes, it's incredibly rare, so OP should be on their sailboat in the Bahamas (or wherever), not doing exactly the same things they would be doing if it had not taken off at all. Otherwise what is the point?
> "We should be supporting them."
I am not not-supporting them.
> "It would suck for anyone to get their life's work stolen and given away for free, which is what is happening here."
I never suggested otherwise. But one thing which helps is: having "fuck you" money and not needing to care. Life changing amounts of money, and the specific change is: not needing to do boring work stuff.
Fair enough. Those are all valid points. 10 years, you get attached to stuff. And plus, if you have a solid revenue stream, why shouldn't someone defend their IP?
I think what you're suggesting is a world view difference, perhaps anecdotal. If you were making a 1M a year, you would retire after a few like you said. For some people, they want to keep pushing the boundaries and go further, not necessarily for the money, but perhaps for other intrinsic motivators.
> "I think what you're suggesting is a world view difference"
For comparison, average UK salary is about £36k/year. 20 years of earnings is less than a million dollars, less than one fifth of the amount discussed. Before tax.
I'm looking at it as "several lifetimes of earnings". More than a lottery win of money. Approximately nobody - no normal person - ever gets that kind of money. Even boomer-generation with houses in London bought 50 years ago with full careers behind them and great pension schemes might only get to half that kind of money.
Perhaps you're looking at it like from a more ... Silicon Valley view of money?