Recommending Open Hardware Monitor

While looking for an alternative to certain basic system monitoring software that has become 'infested', I found Open Hardware Monitor . It is written in C#, thus utilizing the .NET CLR. It also works under Linux /w MONO installed. Even better, it is open source! Pretty cool! We've seen such efforts fail before though ...

Keep the project open to the community and *nobody* benefiting from the mere existence of the application!

The only problems are in this project's future. It is sure to be the 'new thing' to monitor your system with. Now, what have we learned from previous system monitoring utilities?

1. The authors are likely broke because they are author freeware, thus are targets for the commercial 'sharks'.
2. Little by little, the author(s) sell their soul, with advertisements, then 'bundles', then more and more bundles.
3. Rogue download sites repackage the freeware and get money without ever paying the developer(s).
4. ANY of the above leads to stagnation as the developer(s) all feel unfairly subsidized.

How can this project be protected? Well, I am proud to say that I protected one or two free, open source projects from the complications of commercialization. The key is simply not be out to make money. Don't allow donation buttons. Don't have a treasurer. Users can give donations to individual developers, if they want, in secret, perhaps for implementing X, Y, or Z. Keep the project open to the community and nobody benefiting from the mere existence of the application!