Software isn't developed in a vacuum and there are real costs associated w/ it. Ie. there is no free lunch.
From the ArgyllCMS website:
I need your support.
Unfortunately programmers and color experts can't live on encouragement and complements alone - they have bills to pay, equipment to keep up to date, instruments to buy, and other financial obligations just like normal people. So if you find ArgyllCMS valuable, and would like to continue to have technical support, bug-fixes, updates and drivers for new instruments added to it, or you appreciate having serious color management available on platforms other than MSWin and OS X, then it's a really good idea to provide support via a donation commensurate with the value it provides you.
If you are a casual or hobby user, then something like $5 - $100 may be appropriate, depending on how deep your pockets are.
If you are using ArgyllCMS in your business, an annual donation, of (say) 5-20% of the cost of the commercial software you have not had to pay for, would make a great deal of difference in ensuring that it continues to be available.
If you are distributing ArgyllCMS as part of some other free package, then please make your users aware of the need to support the software that you and they depend upon.
If you are distributing ArgyllCMS as part of some other package that you are make money out of (e.g., a commercial Linux distribution where ArgyllCMS is providing a feature that allows Linux to be on par with other operating systems with regard to Color Management), then it would help tremendously if you treated it like other key software you depend on, and make an allowance to donate a portion of a full time developers salary every year.
If there is an insufficient level of ongoing support, then there is a very real possibility that you will return here in 6-12 months time, and find ArgyllCMS has gone.
