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From: Samuel@SU-SCORE.ARPA (Sam Hahn)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto - let the people decide
Message-ID: <9654@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 1-Apr-85 12:07:58 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9654
Posted: Mon Apr  1 12:07:58 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 10:35:49 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
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Let's see...  To me it looks like where there is a high quality
product, and there is an IBM product, many will use the IBM product
not because it is the BEST but because it is IBM.  And thus you get
the advancement of IBM products at the expense of superior ones.

Let's separate the issue of technical superiority from the issue of
whether you must PAY for the product.  One can knock a PD program for
its quality/lack-of-quality, but there are enough examples of superb
software in the public domain that any attempt to generalize based
only on the statements I've seen recently are at best incomplete.
Look at ZCPR, MEX, various disk utilities, Kermit, BYE, various
Forths, compression utilities, XLISP, and who know what else I've left
out in this list that's come just from a quick mental scan.

What support have I received from REAL products??  I've paid DRI and
its associates over $1200.00 for the various OS products I've bought,
but when upgrading from MP/M816 to ConcurrentDOS, I've lost.  MP/M
isn't a real products any more.  Great, I'm out of luck, and am FORCED
to go to ConcurrentDOS.  Have they ever replied to my suggestions for
improvement and consolidation of features from 3.0, -86, -816, not to
mention ORIGINAL suggestions?  No.

What has Sorcim done for me?  They tell me that upgrading from
SuperCalc to SuperCalcII costs $125.00, is what they tell me.  This
when I can order SuperCalcII for $149 or so from mail order houses.
Is this support?

I could go on for many pages (and Kbytes).  I've had better response
from Ron Fowler, who's on the net, regarding MEX, than I've ever had
from my REAL software products.  I've had better help from my user
groups in setting up PD software than I've ever gotten from software
houses.  The sources to PD software is often available, and that means
a LOT in terms of the support that's possible to obtain.

I personally plan to contribute to RMS's GNU effort as soon as I
finish my master's project here at HPP.

				-- Sam Hahn
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