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From: hirchert@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Kurt Hirchert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Alleged high cost of Claris upgrade
Message-ID: <1991Jan17.225256.28034@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Date: 17 Jan 91 22:52:56 GMT
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I'll agree that $49 is not a particularly high cost for what Claris includes
in the package.  On the other hand, who said I want all that stuff that Claris
puts in the package.  There are vendors that will give me that actual update
to a piece of softare at little or no cost and let _me_ decide whether I want
to spend extra money for new manuals or support.

Where $49 looks expecially high is as the cost to upgrade from version 2.0 to
2.0v2.  Even the much maligned Microsoft will send you their minor bug fix
releases for free once you have a legitimate copy of the major release.

[The real problem with all of this is that it undermines the assumption of
universality that has long been a part of HC programming.  Until now, one could
assume that if a potential user of your stack had HC at all, s/he either had
the version you were using or could get it for free.  There is now a serious
tradeoff in deciding whether to use the enhanced functionality of HC 2.0,
because not everyone who has HC will be willing to spend $49 to get version
2.0.]
-- 
Kurt W. Hirchert     hirchert@ncsa.uiuc.edu
National Center for Supercomputing Applications