Is this a good plugin-based software marketing scheme?

Question

I'm in the planning stages of a rather large project (think Photoshop killer) that will be released to the public at large. Most of the features are plugable and I plan to release the plugin sdk for free. I'll also be trying to garner a bit of a community of third-party plugin developers.

I'm thinking of releasing two versions of the program:

XYZ Lite, a freeware downloadable version and XYZ Pro, a commercial version to be sold online and (hopefully) in stores.

Both are full featured, however:

Lite will only run plugins which are signed by the company while pro will run any plugin, signed or not. As a plugin developer, you could choose to sign your plugin for a reasonable fee.

I'm thinking that the free version would run unsigned plugins created on the same machine so developers would not be forced to buy the program.

I've not delved into the implementation of this system and I'm using the term 'signed' in place of 'approved', but you get the picture.

Is this a good idea?

Answer 1

First things first: the idea of a closed source Photoshop killer is far-fetched in my opinion. In what way will your product be better than something that's been out there for so many years.

If it was GPL, then you may possibly have a chance given the support you're likely to get from the community. But then, why would they work on your new application rather than improving the GIMP.

I doubt that they'd be interested at all in a closed source verison but, if you open-source it under the GPL, how will you control the ability to limit what plugins can be run in the lite version?

Short answer: it's not a good idea as far as I can tell. Don't let me put you off however. It's your time and effort.

Answer 2

Honestly, it sounds more like Locked and Unlocked rather than Lite and Pro.

But, unless there's a LOT of really good 3rd-party (unsigned) plugins, there's going to be virtually no point in purchasing the Pro edition if everything else is already in the free Lite edition.

Answer 3

I agree with Jonathan, and I think you've got it the wrong way round. Allow only signed ones in the free version, and unsigned ones in the paid version.