hi, i first hope this post is in the correct category, if not, please, help me to move it. Also, i know this topic is largely followed by Sam and other devs.
Context
I do very appreciate the direct approach of “coding for love” than “coding for money”, i mean, on the educational level, it is clear that coding open may doors to the kids, but also for the adult classes, where people “start thinking by themselves” when starting writing their first lines of code (hahahahha).
anyway, this is why i am here… looking for communities and projects that can touch my heart, without making me the pression/stress of any economical interests… and thats fine when you have works (i have).
I will quickly give some glimps about how i came to this point and why it should call our attention.
i was involved in open source dev from 2001, Blender 3D was my first lovin free softwarewhere i did put my hands in it, from that time, we were few people using Blender every day and coding some python scripts and patches. We were very motivated to push Blender out of its limits, on our free time, and to encourage people to use it at work. thats what we did… really… but things have changed in 20 years… the community has changed also… less help for the members (or trying to sell 20 lines scripts to the beginners), less educatives sessions (or trying to promote their youtube channels), less development volunteers groups (only the official blender.org), etc…
Well, my interest for Blender community and developpment has been less and less over the last 5 years, even if i am using it every day at work and with the students…
So, whats the point with Sonic Pi… well, a software must live… and it can live if the community agree all along the way about the objectives and the manner to turn the cycle life of software with care.
So, we want the software free for everyone, for the students, as for the musicians, geeks,etc… perfect ! now, how to get incomes to ensure the development over the next years?
and i am sure Sam and the dev team are looking at this question on a regular basis.
I am not santaclaus (in case you had some doubts) and i have not the perfect solution, but as i passed various time in this process, i wanted to open the discussion.
So what?
i still have some ideas, specific, in the case of Sonic Pi. Because the software is free and its dependances can be dowloaded, the money cannot come from this direction. So, what people need in order to have the best and greatest time/experience ever within the software?
…
i mean, it is in the name itself ! i was really surprised to not read more about the Raspbery Pi !
is this the best option we have to use Sonic Pi, over a Raspbery Pi, a hdmi screen and a keyboard ?
So, why not providing to the users the opportunity to enter 3 worlds at the same time, coding, open hardware and music. Why there is no a provider (oficial from Sam) to get this product to support the development on a long term ?
The exemple of arduino, with its official board shown us the potential of such market. i think 
After that, i know thar Patreon is well used, but is it sufficient ? i mean, we are close to V4… and it looks that so many upgrade can be done if we have the found to support it…
if i am wrong here, please, correct me.
well, i think you got the point, and if this discussion is somewhere else, i wm interested to discuss with the team about the possible options. thx have a nice day
