I’ve been experimenting with building very small personal tools to help myself stay focused. Recently I wrote a minimal terminal‑based Pomodoro timer because I was struggling to start my side projects and wanted something simple that just works.
While building it, I realized I also need to learn how to distribute small projects properly. Right now I’m trying a simple approach: closed‑source, pay‑what‑you‑want, no DRM, and users just get the right to use the tool.
Since I’m still learning how licensing, expectations and “fairness” work for tiny solo projects, I’m curious how other developers see this model. Is this a reasonable way to distribute small tools? What would you expect as a user or developer?
For context, here’s the project I’m experimenting with.
For me the closed‑source vs source‑available vs open-source choice is mainly about learning distribution models, not about AI‑authored code. I wrote and understand the code — I just wanted to test a model that allows distribution and PWYW, which open‑source doesn’t really support.