It made me wonder how this kind of distribution fits into the philosophy of the Fediverse. Decentralization usually pushes toward open‑source, self‑hosting, and community‑driven tools — so I’m curious how people here view small indie tools distributed through platforms like Gumroad.

Is PWYW + closed‑source compatible with the Fediverse mindset? What do you personally expect from small tools shared in a decentralized ecosystem?

For context, here’s the project I’m experimenting with:

GitHub: https://github.com/Mietkiewski/MPomidoro

top 6 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] AllYourSmurf@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I understand your desire for closed source to maintain control of your revenue stream, but I believe that you’ll find most Fediverse folks adverse to closed source. Many associate closed source models with a lack of transparency and a loss of control. A small tool like yours might not run up against that kind of opposition simply because it is small and does not handle a lot of data.

I do like the pay what you want model. It's helped fund support for open source projects in the past so there shouldn't be much pushback for that.

[–] mietkiewski_dev@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Makes sense. For me this project is more of an experiment than a statement. I’m mainly trying to understand which part matters most here — the closed‑source bit, the Gumroad dependency, or the general expectation of openness. PWYW seems to fit well, so I’m curious where the real boundary is for small indie tools.

[–] projectmoon@social.agnos.is 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

@mietkiewski_dev@lemmy.world aside from closed source being unethical, closing the source to a pomodoro timer doesn't really make sense since there's so many such timers available under user friendly licenses.

[–] mietkiewski_dev@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Fair point. This one started as a personal experiment, not a stance. I’m mainly trying to understand whether the pushback is more about ethics, practicality, or just Fediverse culture.

[–] KatherinaReichelt@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I really struggle to see what the benefit of federation would be here. That would mean that you would have several eCommerce pages with a federated product catalog? And if I buy on site A I might buy from someone on site B?

[–] mietkiewski_dev@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Yeah, I agree — federation doesn’t really apply here. I was asking more about expectations around distribution in a decentralized space, not about federating a storefront. Just trying to see where people draw the line for small indie tools.