Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!bnfb
From: bnfb@june.cs.washington.edu (Bjorn Freeman-Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Free Upgrades and Bug Fixes -- A Policy Question
Message-ID: <4082@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 26 Jan 88 06:34:53 GMT
Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 19

What is the consensus about software vendors offering free upgrades
and bug fixes?  It seems to me that other industries have always
charged for upgrades, especially in a consumer environment.  For
example, dish washers are not upgraded each year for free -- if you
want a bug fix, you buy a new one.

Now I agree that the analogy is not perfect, but the software
industry is moving from small numbers of individually built programs
to large numbers of mass produced programs, and thus we are moving
towards software as a consumer item.

If one were to say "buy the upgrades", then the engineering issues
of quality and relability would become even more relevant.
Furthermore, the usual practice of only supporting (in the training
sense) the latest release, would be hard to justify.

Comments?

Bjorn N. Freeman-Benson