Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell!pacbell.com!ames!ucsd!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!myrias!ami-cg!cg From: cg@ami-cg.UUCP (Chris Gray) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Does Shareware hurt professional software development? Message-ID: <02490.AA02490@ami-cg.UUCP> Date: 1 Jun 90 18:15:44 GMT Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga Lines: 43 In <18281@well.sf.ca.us> farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes: > Once again, as the shareware discussion raises it's ugly head, I'm compelled > to remind people of the original work - PC-TALK, by Andrew Fleugleman. > And also compelled to mention that it was NOT "shareware" - it was Freeware > (term copyrighted by Flugelman, unfortunately). The difference is that > Andy said "copy this all you want - use it all you want. Nothing is held > back, nothing will be added if you spend big bucks (except for a nicely > printed manual instead of online docs). You do NOT have to send money, > but if you do, here's where to send it:
". > > He made mucho bucks. I'd like to see a lot more of this - not the > mutant sort of extortion that "shareware" has become. I'm real curious as to what you are referring to. I've seen a few shareware programs for the Amiga (and put out some myself), and all I've ever seen are messages to the effect of "if you like this program and want to encourage me to do more, send me something". Is this the kind of thing you find so distasteful? If so, why? You certainly aren't being "extorted" in any way. My personal impression is that putting something out as shareware implies more committment to support on the part of the author than otherwise. To me that sounds GOOD. I certainly have less qualms about running some shareware stuff on my system then I do about a lot of the non-shareware stuff. There is of course lots of extremely good stuff that isn't shareware, too. The comment about shareware not being a source of income is definitely true- I would have starved long ago if I had been relying on it. I would guess that I spend more money to support my stuff than I get in contributions! If you are unhappy with any program for which you don't have the source, I can understand your frustration to a certain extent. I haven't released the source to my Draco compiler, for example. I probably will eventually, but only when I no longer care much about it. The reason is quite simple - I want people to associate the notion of quality with my stuff, and I'm afraid that most of the hackers out there would not contribute to that aspect. Also, Draco is my invention, and I want to maintain control over what it is and what versions exist. I suspect that many of the larger programs and systems out there do not include source for similar reasons. -- -- Chris Gray usenet: {uunet,alberta}!myrias!ami-cg!cg CIS: 74007,1165