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From: Adam.Frix@p2.f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: StuffIt in the trash!
Message-ID: <71353.26F6CF23@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 16 Sep 90 20:20:25 GMT
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Charles Carlson writes in a message to Norman Goodger on 14 Sep 90:

CC>  Thats not the point.  Shareware software can be freely distributed 
CC>  and tried out...You can't do that with commercial software. 
CC>    ...


But that's not the point.  There are people who WILL NOT support any "commercial"
software for any use, choosing instead to support/use the shareware version/alternatives.
 The question which immediately comes to mind is, why?  Continued use of a shareware
product is NO DIFFERENT than the continued use of a commercial product--in each
case, the user is obligated to pay.  If you and some others are going to make
a huge stink about "being able to try it out before you buy it" and how that
is such an overriding factor, first to be considered above all others, then
that's your problem.  But I submit that most people will only support a standard
based on a shareware product because they can get the shareware product without
having to go into a store, stick it into their pockets, and leave without paying
for it.  It's much easier for these types to download it anonymously (more or
less) and use it wihtout paying with no one else watching--to them, it doesn't
promote the same guilt feelings.

Besides, you can get almost _any_ commercially distributed software package
with some kind of money back guarantee--if not from the middleman, then certainly
such terms can be arranged with the publishing house.  No software company I've
ever asked has refused to offer such a guarantee, and MacConnection et al. jumped
on that bandwagon themselves some time ago.  So your "try before you buy" theory
holds very little water.

To say that shareware is better to use as a standard than commercialware just
shows the speaker's ignorance toward the ethics in the matter.

--Adam--
 

--  
Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
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