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From: BillW@SU-SCORE.ARPA (William Chops Westfield)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Free is inferior -- by definition?
Message-ID: <9673@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 1-Apr-85 16:14:31 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9673
Posted: Mon Apr  1 16:14:31 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 10:40:49 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
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The major problem with Public domain software is that it is
hard to get ahold of.  It lacks a distributer network.  What I
think of as support (with respect to PD having less than
boughten software) is that you can go down to your friendly
neighborhodd computer store, say "I need a program that does
XXX for my YYY computer", and have them give you a disk that
fits YYY's disk drives, and a manual that tells you how to
use the program.  Hopefully, there will be several programs
that do XXX, and the salesperson will be able to let you
try them out, and/or give you advice on which one would be
better for you...

KERMIT is probably one of the best communications programs
around, but have you ever tried to bring it up on a system
that you didn't already have a communications program for?
(or a friend who could give you a disk?).

Remember that for a typical $200 program, less than 20%
goes back to the programmer (for programs written by an
individual and marketed through a publisher).  The publishers
and distributers have profits too, but I would guess that
the actual cost of distributing a program are close to 40%
of the final price.  The program will still cost $80 even
if written by RMS and his friends for free...

Another thing to note is that PD programs like Kermit
frequently have a "distribution fee" to cover the costs
of making the tape and sending it out and so on.  This
is usually $100-$200, more than many micro programs...

BillW