Good night, and don’t forget to tip your add-on developers!

Posted by admin

July 18, 2009

Mozilla’s add-on repository recently added a new feature that might make the developers of popular Firefox extensions very happy: a tip jar. Nobody’s charging users to download add-ons, but at least the option is there to reward the (mostly) unsung heroes behind some of the software we use every day. Add-ons aren’t really the most glamorous or profitable arena in software development, but Adblock, Greasemonkey and other favorites make daily life on the web a lot more enjoyable.

Because Mozilla’s add-on site does such a good job cataloguing and signing add-ons, most people who use them never need to visit a developer’s website where there might be a way to donate, so the PayPal tip jar on the Mozilla site might be the only way they get paid anything for their work. I know most people writing Firefox extensions aren’t doing it for the big money, but in some cases, I’m actually making money by using their add-ons to work more quickly. I don’t see a problem with kicking back a few bucks to the folks who made them.

[via Webware]

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