Hi David Washington,
Since Inkscape is already marketed as a free software, putting this out there with a price just might give Inkscape the impression that it may no longer be free, and that is a issue for the reputation of Inkscape for many people, but however that concern can be minimized. To begin with, one has to find a way to minimize that problem. To start with a suggestion, let's start with a hypothetical. If one were to put a price on the software and put it on a store, then Inkscape should have some sort of additional features that one must pay to have with assurance that the money being paid for additional features is a donation to support Inkscape development, but Inkscape should remain free to download via Windows Store. Some additional features can be cloud saving, and exporting to Microsoft Office programs. Microsoft Office programs don't really do well rendering Inkscape SVG, but I'm sure this can be considered later on if Microsoft wants to put this program on the store. I'm sure a lot of people would pay to have better SVG rendering support for Microsoft Office, and this might be the first step for that, and this also might encourage open-source office programs to render Inkscape SVG better (That is if they even bother with that at all).
This can indeed be a start for better SVG support for Office programs, and cloud saving in Inkscape with Microsoft server, better program integration support, even better SVG rendering on the web, and of course, more awareness of Inkscape. There also might be more incentive for Inkscape to have better mobile support as a result of this. Essentially, development of Inkscape can go forward at a faster rate. Come to think of it, I think I support the idea of a price provided the price is only for additional features. I hope to see improvement on SVG support everywhere as a result of this were if this were to go forward, and as well as improvements on Inkscape considering that Inkscape development is very slow.
Thanks,
Miguel Lopez
On 3/28/2017 9:24 PM, Martin Owens wrote:
Thanks Mc,
This is very interesting.
I'd actually be interested in asking for a price per install. Everyone thinks that Inkscape is 'for free', but actually it's more important that's it's Free Software.
Say if the price for inkscape is $10 on the windows store. Windows is our biggest market, there's an opportunity there even if most people forgo the store and download from us directly.
Thoughts?
Best Regards, Martin Owens
On Wed, 2017-03-29 at 00:30 +0200, Marc Jeanmougin wrote:
Hi all,
I recently discussed on IRC with dwcares from Miscrosoft who wants to help us simplify precesses on windows.
Here is his email:
=== David Washington from Microsoft here. Earlier this afternoon I had conversation with Marc about potentially publishing the Inkscape app to the Windows Store, the app store for Windows 10 PCs.
The Windows Store now supports publishing Win32 Desktop apps with little or no code change using the Windows Desktop Bridge. Taking advantage of the Windows Desktop Bridge and Distributing through the Windows Store also provides simplified options for automated updates, easy install and uninstall, and provides a new distribution path for folks who may have not found Inkscape before.
Our team has identified Inkscape as a top desktop app that we’d love to see in the Windows Store. Given this we have some resources to help with the process of getting this ported using the Windows Desktop Bridge and published to the Windows Store. The process itself is lightweight, and our team is equipped help walk you through getting it ported and published. We’ve done some early investigation on the Inkscape binaries and we haven’t identified any issues getting it published.
If this is something that seems interesting to you, we can get together on the phone and talk through the details for the next steps of getting this published. If you’d rather make progress in email/IRC, we’re happy to accommodate what works for your team. We’re prepared to work with you on getting this published as early as next week.
I look forward to working together. I’ve included some folks from my team who will be helping you.
Thanks much, David Washington Microsoft | Developer Experience | 206-605-2062 ===
Eduard, Nicolas or Partha, iirc you're the ones doing stuff on windows, could you take it from here if it seems interesting ?
Thanks,
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