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From: KPURCELL@liverpool.ac.uk (Kevin ^G Purcell)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Feedback on Computer Crime
Message-ID: <9008161340.AA17194@encore.encore.com>
Date: 16 Aug 90 13:13:30 GMT
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On 15 Aug 90 19:02:03 GMT Branscombe M P C
(mcsun!ukc!strath-cs!stl!servax0!Sol33!braum@net.uu.uunet) said:

>the differences between commercial software and free/shareware are -

>backup services.

I presume you mean technical support -- a lot of the technical support I have
encountered with commerical software is neither technical nor support.
As time moves on (and we see the full version of GNU) we will see more
companies providing support for these products (e.g. I think Convex now
supports GNU Emacs for its customers). There is a lot of money to be made
there and as you work for a common base you can always drop your current
GNU support and go to another company. Can you do that today?

>guarantees.

Ha Ha Ha He He He Ho Ho Ho -- but seriously folks ....

I have yet to see a software company make a guarantee about their software.
All of them have (probably illegal) disclaimers, saying they don't guarantee
their product to do anything whatsoever.

>fixing bugs in the code 5 years later.

I couldn't figure out if this was a joke or not, but 5 years seems about right.
Most freeware bugs (when you get the source) can be fixed on site. The bugs
get fixed faster than any commerical group. Otherwise they get distributed on
the net.

>teaching you how to use the product.

More humour? Apart from paying a large amount of money to a company that make
their living from doing this most software companies will just laugh at you
("We'll you bough it, now you can figure out how to use it"). Most companies
appear not even to document all the features in their products.

>updates

That cost more money and are late.

>If I can get an expensive expert system shell from a company that will
> continue to support the product, or a free system from I-don't-know-where with
> no-one to help in even six months time - what should I invest my programming
> effort in?

Depends how much money you have and whether you can get the source, so that
you can do the maintainance yourself when they go under (or you could get it
from IBM, Toshiba, ...:-).

>Mary Branscombe
>(disclaimer - well I claim I wrote dis)

Are you sure you didn't forget the smiley?

Kevin Purcell             | kpurcell@liverpool.ac.uk
Surface Science Centre    |
Liverpool University      | Omit needless words.