Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!pacbell!ames!claris!apple!motcsd!hpda!hpcupt1!hprnd!hprmokg!alh
From: alh@hprmokg.HP.COM (Al Harrington)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Piracy, prosecution, & thanks to PD writers
Message-ID: <13240036@hprmokg.HP.COM>
Date: 7 Aug 89 22:04:26 GMT
References: <10466@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Organization: HP Networked Computer Mfg. Operation
Lines: 32

>From my experience with "PD" stuff on the AMIGA, there is very little. Most
>freely distributable software on the Amiga is ShareWare. 

That's not true.  I ran a BBS for almost 2 years and have over 50 megs
of PD files.  I'd say at least 75-80% of that *is not* shareware.  

Some of the most useful programs I have are PD.

Of course you have to look for the stuff and weed out the useless
stuff.  But if its that or pay $100 for a commercial version I'll take
the time and check out the local BBS'.

As for Amiga software I think most of it is much more affordable than
Mac or IBM software.  PageStream (which would rival many IBM/Mac DTP
programs) cost me $130.  PageMaker is around $300 or more.  MaxiPlan
is just over $100 whereas Lotus 123 is several hundred.

I'm sure a lot of people don't care for this but a local computer
store rents software (anything under $50 or so).  I like this,
especially for games.  I've been burned a few times buying some stupid
game that looked good when running the demo or the package looked
good.  Being able to rent it first saves me a lot of money.


+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| -Al Harrington                  /// |                                    |
|                                ///  |    "Do I look like I'm joking?"    |
| alh@hprmo.HP.COM           \\\///   |                                    |
| ..{hplabs,hp-sde}!hprmo!alh \XX/    |               - The Joker          |
+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
|         My comments in no way reflect the views or opinions of HP        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+