Money, money, money

Microsoft Word is popular. Everyone has it. But this is Zimbabwe, so if you are not working for a company listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, you’re probably a pirate if you are using Microsoft Word. It’s not free. It’s supposed to be paid for.

I also released an app called Medbase. A few people use it and it makes me negative thirty dollars a year. But it’s a passion project so I keep it running. Point is though, it’d really suck with the effort I put in the application, someone removes the ads that bring a bit of money (that I haven’t even used because it’s not a lot) or someone does something to jeopardise the application. So since I also I have an app in the wild that I wouldn’t want to be tampered with, I don’t use Microsoft Word that is also tampered with.

But Microsoft is a big company

I know what you are saying,”Microsoft is a big company that brings in millions per year. My single laptop wouldn’t change a thing.” And I am genuinely against that type of thinking. Because guess what, you are not the only one thinking that. A million other people in Zimbabwe are probably saying the same and that compounds.

I relate it to my application. If Medbase was charging $5 a month to use and it had 100 people who had the same thinking, that means Medbase wouldn’t be making $500 per month that is was supposed to make. And in Zimbabwe, that is a lot of money that can support the creator of the app and also be invested back into the application.

The world is going digital

Everything in life is becoming digital. Unfortunately, as Zimbabweans we don’t see value because we are used to physical, tangible things. So paying for something digital is a waste of money (money that many Zimbos don’t have anyway) but it’s a mindset that will have to change eventually as we go into the future. Paying for digital services is a reality that we can’t run away from because it is coming.

And since I fall into the category of Zimbabweans who can’t afford to pay for Office, I’d rather use the free alternatives such as LibreOffice and FreeOffice just because of how I wouldn’t want to not make money from my own app too.

Conclusion

This was a hodge podge of a post but the summary is this. I feel the pain of not getting renumerated on your hard work. And I hope that Zimbabweans get used to paying for digital programs.