Agreed, no one who sells chairs will make them for free then ask for a $X "donation." But somehow people think devs should make their own stuff free too and ask for donations. If you like the product at a given price, buy it, and if you don't like either, don't buy it, same as any other good.
And people will pay $60 for physical items but balk at $0.99 apps and digital goods, it's strange.
Id rather also pay for the software. My point is charging $6 for dark mode is still “begging.”
I like the shareware model where people pay what they can, or what they perceive the value to be. I don’t think this is begging.
Programming is kind of unique because the marginal cost of production is near zero. I think this is a feature, not a bug and why it’s possible to have single person dev companies that are quite lucrative.
People who offer their labor as shareware will tend towards making 0 dollars. That's just the reality of it, if people don't have to pay, they won't. If you want to make money, you should...charge people money.
And people will pay $60 for physical items but balk at $0.99 apps and digital goods, it's strange.