Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!titan!lofaso
From: lofaso@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Bernie Lofaso)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: An issue for the entire Amiga Community.
Summary: more discussion
Message-ID: <647@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu>
Date: 25 May 90 18:36:32 GMT
References: <1990May17.001308.29541@csmil.umich.edu> <5366@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Organization: Applied Research Labs, University of Texas; Austin, IX
Lines: 53



This topic has been of particular interest to me.  Partly because I can
relate to both sides of the issue, partly because some of the projects that
I'm currently working on as PD software may eventually impact some
commercial software.

On one hand I tend to lean towards the every developer for himself attitude.
Part of developing a successful product is to correctly assess the
marketability of a product before beginning its development.  I, as a
weekend hacker, have much less time to devote towards software development,
so it is reasonable to think that within a given time span a similarly
talented developer should be able to develop a much better product than I
and hence assure its continued marketability because of that superiority.
If I can program a few hours a night (and believe me I program much less)
and produce a similar product with even half the functionality of a
commercial developer's product, then something is greatly amiss.  Either the
product is a bit trivial or the developer is not a very good one.  The
latter would lead me to speculate that he gets what he deserves; his product
goes belly-up and he moves on to potentially greener pastures (perhaps as an
insurance salesman or some such).

Some might fault me for introducing my PD release and damaging the
developer's sales, but had I introduced it as a commercial product at a
ridiculusly low price, we would say "hey that's competition ... the American
way." (Run up a flag here.)  It can certainly be argued that introduction of
an inferior product might unfairly grab market share from a fine product,
but hasn't that always been the case?  Come on, we'll all seen crap-ware on
the market and in the past some have gotten away with some fairly steep
prices, hence the argument about greedy developers.

On the other hand I do not wish to deprive a deserving developer of his just
rewards.  I agree about considering things like GNU ports in light of
exactly what that would do to the Amiga development environment.  Note this
is not the same as my above example - the lone programmer writing WidgetX is
totally different from taking an existing application with uncountable
man-hours of work and porting it.  While I wish to take such things into
account, I am at a loss for how to approach such concerns.  If I have
WidgetX and a commercial product comes out before I release, what do I do if
I know mine isn't as good (or even if it is) and I suspect it may effect the
commercial product's sales.  Do I contact the developer and "warn" him.  I
probably won't be interested in a join venture.  Programming on the weekends
is much less taxing that having to get something done to support paying
customers.  I am open to ideas on this situation.

One last viewpoint is that of what is best for the Amiga.  Would having
WidgetX as PD inspire more people to buy the Amiga?  Would people who were
unwilling to dish out bucks for a better product view the machine as more
desirable because of all the good free software?  Until Commodore approaches
IBM and Apple in terms of Amiga sales, this will always be a concern of
mine.

Bernie Lofaso