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From: tmb@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu (Thomas M. Breuel)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: TUG and TeX...
Message-ID: <10478@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 7 Sep 90 09:38:25 GMT
References: <9009040308.AA06677@lilac.berkeley.edu>
Sender: news@ai.mit.edu
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
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[dlv writes:]
>Here are some ways in which these TeX sellers hurt our community:

>* they prevent the spread of TeX. People who've spent $2,000 on software
>are less likely to give free copies to others.

If they spent $2000 on TeX, they probably bought a proprietary version
and would not even legally be permitted to re-distribute it.

>* they prevent programmers from releasing the results of their work into the
>public domain. People are reluctant to make their programs publicly
>available for fear that someone will start selling them; or at least they
>distribute them without the source code.

Commercial vendors of TeX perform a useful function. I would guess that
Knuth, just like MIT (for X windows), and AT&T (for SML of NJ) made a
conscious decision to release their (excellent) software such that it
may be re-sold for profit. All these institutions/persons could have
distributed their software under a copyleft, if they had wanted to, but
must have considered that alternative less useful.

By allowing vendors to re-sell proprietary versions of free software
like TeX, SML, and X windows, you encourage ports to a much larger variety
of machines and operating systems. You also encourage advertising and
marketing, and commercial versions come with support, are often
easier to install and set up, and they don't require downloading. 

I had considered buying a commercial version of TeX for my Amiga (before
I sold the Amiga), because it was simply the least effort way of getting
TeX up and running.

>* they rip off those ignorant of the existence of better alternatives.
>People buy their TeX's instead of spending their computer budget on
>something they really need. (Note that buyers of commercial TeXs are
>ignorant / not too bright through no fault of theirs.)

There is no rip off here. Information is a commodity that costs money
just as goods. If you don't invest in the information about where you
can get something for free, you have to pay for that something.  There
is nothing wrong with that.  These people could hire consultants who
would tell them about the PD versions, but probably the total cost to
them would be just as high as if they bought the commercial version,
and, in the latter case, they get support.

If all of this bothers you so much, perhaps you are willing to spend a
couple of thousand dollars advertising the availability of a free
version of TeX for the Mac or MS-DOS out of your own pocket.

I think altogether the TeX community has benefited from the
availability of commercial, proprietary versions of TeX.  Most computer
users (PC or Mac) wouldn't even have heard of TeX if companies hadn't
advertised their proprietary versions in magazines and journals.