Path: utzoo!utdoe!generic!pnet91!marekp
From: marekp@pnet91.cts.com (Marek Pawlowski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Shareware
Message-ID: <422@generic.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 91 07:45:15 GMT
Sender: root@generic.UUCP
Organization: People-Net [pnet91], Etobicoke, ON
Lines: 57



>In article <380@generic.UUCP> marekp@pnet91.cts.com (Marek Pawlowski) writes:
>>I could bitch about how Shareware has been treating me (not well), but let
me
>>tell you something else.  People look for more bang for their buck in this
>>time of economic repression.  Z-Link is decent.  But for 2 or 3 times the
>                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Which is all it's supposed to be. I wrote it because I needed it. I
>figured others would get some use out of it too.

Agreed.  Now if you charged shareware for BINSCII..

>>money, you can get ProTERM, which outranks Z-Link in many ways.
>
>Note that 2-3 times part. I mean, buy what you need, but remember that
>suitable (and much cheaper) products exist. On the other hand, pay for
>what you use. Software doesn't grow on trees, you know.

I'm sure there are people out there who would LOVE to help out upgrading
Z-Link.  Adding protocols, and making it more and more like ProTERM, with
more to offer.  I'd be one of them.  I'd pay $25 for a Z-Link that has
more or the same amount of options to offer than ProTERM.

That's when a hack turns in to profit.

>>Improve your product, and bring the price down.
>
>I've done the first part w/o doing the second. I figure that $25 is a
>nice price for what Z-Link does. If people can't live with that, then
>I ask you to stop using Z-Link and *buy* something else. If Z-Link
>does suit you, then I ask you to pay for it. Most people will find
>that it's not a major economic strain...

Of course.  It's up to the author in the end.  How much to "charge",
that is.  I'm happy with my ProTERM (which I bought), others are not.

It's hard to put a value on time.

>--
>Dave Whitney
>Computer Science MIT 1990       | I wrote Z-Link and BinSCII. Send me bug
>dcw@lcs.mit.edu   dcw@mit.edu   | reports. I still need a job. Send me
offers.
>"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" --Binky (aka Matt Groening)

Spiff up Z-Link.  Get a working Zmodem running on it (I got specs), Y and
X modem as well (all the different variants), plus Kermit!  Add a very
nice and functional vt100, and KILL the competition.  I'm behind you all
the way.  Make some money off Z-Link, and be a model for the rest of
the world.

/* Marek Pawlowski, marekp@{generic|pnet91|bkj386|torag|aunix}.uucp  [CONT] */
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