Basilisk 2023.09.15 Released!

[Pallid Planetoid]

I totally understand your sympathies athenian200 (and others who express similar concerns) and with that, I will say most assuredly - I'm with all of you on this - but seriously (think about it), I'm talking about $60 to perhaps as much as $200 at the very extreme per year (again, keep in mind that $200 high-end is assuming an astronomically increase in costs from where they are currently). That's a range of around $5 to $16 per month - to provide a way to ensure for the most part "new" users can rely on and feel comfortable with the fact the software is indeed certified and in that knowledge it is perceived to be of minimal risk to use it in regards to the perspective of potential users (who the more you get the more likely donations should easily help to defray this small cost per month were talking about here). Consider, if the difference is that by ensuring the software is "certified" ultimately leads to an increase of 10% of users per year and say you have a very minimal userbase of just 1000 users to begin with (presumably very easily attainable obviously for any very basic software service) -- we end up with an increase of around 100 users per year. If just 5% of the overall users (starting out at just 1000) donate an average of $5 per year the cost of certifying the software is easily covered and then some. And consider that certifying the software ultimately provides an increase of just 20% more users per year who would have otherwise decided to use another browser as a result of observing an "unknown" Publisher status (a reasonable percentage increase under the circumstances) you've got an increase of 200 more users per year your adding to the user-base as result of being certified which figures out to around an increase of $50 more per year in donations year-over-year at the 5% donation rate previously mentioned (easily covering potential inflationary costs) - all of which, keep in mind, you would not have absent the certification. I know, it's all hypothetical speculation, but the numbers I'm suggesting would seem to be quite conservative hence likely attainable. Remember, you have to keep in mind, what limited revenue that may exist via donations can be to a large extent reflective of what you provide a potential user-base - it's all just common marketing acumen were discussing here, nothing more or less..

Considering in terms of an enterprise in general --
The alternatives are simple in regards to where an enterprise (defined as a project or undertaking of any kind) will head; that is to "stand pat" with likely less potential for growth on the horizon that can put at risk the success of an enterprise in the long term versus "taking on" a relatively minimal additional cost in the near-term that if done prudently would presumably help ensure the success of the enterprise in the long term due to the expectation of an improved revenue versus cost ratio. On the one hand a potential "dead-end" may be in store for an enterprise of any kind as opposed to minimally keeping the enterprise operational at the very least. The concept is simple, as far as "more potential" versus "less potential" and what that means to an enterprise of any kind - in either case the ultimate "potential" of any enterprise is in general a direct consequence of the degree of reciprocity that is undertaken by that enterprise specific to the relationship between the "provided service" versus the expectations of the "customer-base". The trick is doing whatever it takes to keep the dynamics between these two integral parts of an enterprise at least minimally in favor of the enterprise to ensure its success (which usually translates to keeping the customer base ostensibly more pleased than not pleased).

[Moonchild]

Off-topic:

as much as $200 at the very extreme per year

Current pricing starts at $250/year and goes up from there. a far cry from the 20% of that which it was before. Something changed and this is a roadblock for many infie developers from getting off the ground.

If just 5% of the overall users (starting out at just 1000) donate

Unfortunately this is not the case. Overall, much less than 5% of users will ever donate anything, even to a piece of software they use daily. This comes from the complacency of having used no-cost services from big data-harvesters for most of their time, and simply not understanding the economics of publishing FOSS. The only reason Pale Moon stays afloat is because of a combination of donations from long-term users and search engine revenue share (although DDG has been steadily closing that tap...) and a tiny bit of help from the eBay affiliate link on the start portal. If any one of those income streams dries up it'll become harder (and harder) to justify the economics of how I run the project at the moment. There's not much wiggle room because most people simply never support free software. As such, a code-signing cert at the prices indicated in the new thread athenian started (best continue this discussion there and keep this thread for Basilisk release discussion) are a definite roadblock.

[Basilisk-Dev]

so th

I'm developing Epyrus as a hobby and I make no money from it, and I imagine the same is true for Basilisk-Dev and his browser.

Correct, I have not received any money whatsoever even as a donation since I started developing Basilisk. Thankfully as a software engineer I have a well paying job so I'm able to afford the expenses of the domains, SSL certificates, and server infrastructure, but if I were in a worse economic position then Basilisk probably would not exist.

Off-topic:
I've considered offering an enterprise software based on Basilisk for enterprise customers who still need XUL/Adobe Flash/Microsoft Silverlight with a paid support plan. I haven't done so yet and am not sure how big the market for such a support contract would be.

I do personally know of a few businesses stuck using custom internally developed Adobe Flash applications that were developed in the mid-2000s and those businesses are forced to use old browsers to maintain their NPAPI support so they can run Flash. Having a browser that still gets security updates would likely be benificial to those companies.

[Basilisk-Dev]

Locking for new version