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From: leder@ihlpm.ATT.COM (Leder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Another View on Shareware
Message-ID: <1109@ihlpm.ATT.COM>
Date: Thu, 7-May-87 11:17:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpm.1109
Posted: Thu May  7 11:17:55 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 9-May-87 04:48:57 EDT
References: <18006@sun.uucp> <1474@uwmacc.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 30
Keywords: Shareware, free advertising, many versions
Summary: to share or not to share, that is the question
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.amiga:4587 comp.sys.ibm.pc:3826

In article <1474@uwmacc.UUCP>, edwards@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Mark Edwards) writes:
> In article <18006@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.uucp (Chuck McManis) writes:
> >TITLE: A long tirade, being my opinions.
> >    The problem with shareware ...  Second, it hurts little companies..

I would disagree in that a lot of software would not be available at any
price if it were not for shareware.  Authors might ship their stuff to
the public domain, but many would find it not worth the effort.  Secondly,
if there is sufficient support for a program (in contributions) the
author has an incentive to support it.  I can remember many programs on
cp/m that appeared only once with no updates or bug fixes because the
author had no good reason to do it.

> The Big Question is should I pay for them? If I had to buy ...

In my opinion (and we all know about opinions) the whole idea of
shareware is paying for what we use. I think that we are doing the author
a favor and a honor if we retain a copy that we may someday use or
distribute (and pay for if we do decide to use it).


>   Do I have a money back warrantee if after really using the shareware program

You must be dreaming.  At least with shareware, you can get some idea of
the usefulness of the program before you purchase it.  Ask LOTUS or MS
about the "no cost updates to fix bugs" (this is a joke). You probably
would have better luck with a shareware author because the guy selling
you the software would be more embarrassed by the error(s).

Bob Leder - just using up those idle cpu cycles