Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell!pacbell.com!ames!apple!netcom!mcmahan From: mcmahan@netcom.UUCP (Dave Mc Mahan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: An issue for the entire Amiga Community. Message-ID: <12779@netcom.UUCP> Date: 3 Jun 90 20:06:08 GMT References: <20930@snow-white.udel.EDU> <1990Jun3.163532.12083@ameristar> Organization: Dave McMahan @ NetCom Services Lines: 140 In a previous article, rick@ameristar (Rick Spanbauer) writes: > > $40 probably isn't a realistic price point for any product that comes > with support, especially a language product. This I agree with. I'm not sure, but I don't think that Borland even sells the original vanilla TurboPascal for the $49 pricetag. This pricepoint can be met, but it takes a HUGE investement of thought and time up front to make it work. > PD has its place for any machine. There is probably no better way > to learn how to (or how not to) program any machine than by looking > at PD sources. PD helps manufacturers who market non-traditional > machines (eg the Amiga) get their first year of sales going before > developers come on line. However, realize that there are people who > derive all their income from sales in the Amiga market (I am _not_ one > of those people) - prospective PD software authors should > perhaps stop and think before they launch freeware that will affect > a commercial package - if YOU were deriving all your income from a > particular product, how would YOU feel about some person cutting the > legs out of YOUR product. True. PD does have it's place. So does TryWare, ShareWare, FreeWare, lowball commercial, high priced commercial, etc. Later in this posting you talk about learning lessons and economics. Since when does a free market approach preach that one should take into account the number of children a competitor has? If the competition isn't good enough to survive with a PD alternative, then so be it, IMHO. Darwinian selection can be good, and Yes, I have lost my job due to working on a project that wasn't competetive. It happens. Do you think it's fair that Detroit suffers regular waves of severe economic hardship due to the antics of Ford/GM/Chrysler while trying to compete against the Japanese et al? Give the people an option, and let the Free market decide who lives and who dies. If consumers shouldn't feel obliged to buy from BrandX because the guy just had a baby and really needs the money, why should Joe HackerDude worry about cutting his legs off on the commercial market? > Here's a suggestion: rather than going for PD glory/hacker recognition, > take your clone of a commercial product and actually try to compete > with it on a fair footing with the other guy. One could approach > the usual software houses with the product and get them to sell it, > for example. You'll derive quite a few benefits from such a move: Fair? I don't know about anybody else out there, but nobody ever promised me life would be fair! Who decides what 'fair' is and what it's not? People who do PD have a different motivation than those who don't. Who's to say that isn't right? Maybe Joe Coder doesn't want to deal with the hastle of trying to get the world to reward him with money. The essay on C-Light that appeared here in c.s.a would be enough to encourage most to think twice before going on the independant software producer road. > 1. You'll get an education in what it costs to do things > commercially. The collective voice of sanity in Amiga > product pricing will have won another convert ;-) If you > follow the engineering rags these days it quickly becomes > apparent that the industry will chew you up and spit you > out around age 40 unless you've aquired some business > acumen by then. This assumes that a person actually cares about making money from his work. As previously stated, there are different motivations. You are correct, however, in stating that the real world will grind you exceedingly hard as you establish yourself. There are exceptions, but I don't know any personally. > 2. You'll make more money than you would doing the same thing > shareware. I am currently writing a program to be released to the PD amiga market. It has a direct commercial competitor. I don't expect to make money on my version, even though I'll ask for some and maybe cripple a few features to encourage compliance. I haven't really kept track, But I'd guess I have at least 80 hours to date into it, probably much more. If I'm lucky, I think I'll maybe make $100. Do I care about either the money I make or the sales they might loose? Nope. Different motivations entirely. Part of risks of going into business is being subjected to competition of all types. The rewards are that if you choose right, you get rich. They may decide to approach me and 'buy me out' or hire me as an outside contractor. Who can say? > 3. If your clone is technically competitive, then you'll help > the user community by making your competitor do his thing > better. (He will be encouraged to do better rather than > run because he knows you are operating under the same > forces of natural selection he is) He could also be wimpy and just decide to fold, or callus and just decide not to change, or jealous/crazy and decide to shoot me!! Who knows what the competition will do, given his resources and the factors involved? > 4. With your new found revenue stream you may then have the > bucks + positive reinforcement to do the Amiga a favor > by continuing to produce software for the machine. How many people get upset because they didn't make money off PD when they expected to and decide to leave the arena? Once again, money is nice but not the only motivation to write software for the amiga (or anything else). I do software for a living during the day, and I do amiga stuff at night just for kicks. > In summary: the "right" thing is to distribute significant works and > all clone works commercially. Right for you, right for the user > community, right for the machine itself. And hell, it is considerate > of other people too. To paraphraze the comic Lenny Bruce, "Who is to say what's right?". IMHO, I would say that the population should try any and all things, and let the free market decide. > If you choose to ignore what was said in this posting then consider > this: sooner or later the day will come when you graduate from > college and the reality of paying off your loans, getting a mortgage, > paying rent, insurance, raising a family, etc is waiting for you > at the door :-) The unfortunate truth for all us computer dweebs is > that banks negotiate transactions in terms of dollars, not lines of > PD software. I have graduated (about 7 years ago), paid off loans, got a mortgage, payed rent and insurance. I still feel that the PD/Shareware market should be allowed to do whatever the heck it wants. Banks do negotiate in terms of dollars but they are not the only yardstick of performance out there. Of course, I haven't raised a family yet, so my perspective may change when that occurs, but I kind of doubt it. :-) As you may have gathered, I'm a true believer in the free market. I support Jack Radigan (financially, too) and others who have elected to go the shareware route. I also support the idea of commercial software, both high and low priced. If the market gives it a thumbs down, then they have to live with it. If there is no cap on the up-side of software stardom, why should there be a limit on the down-side? > Rick Spanbauer -dave