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From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Finkware
Message-ID: <1438@looking.UUCP>
Date: 27 Feb 88 21:27:41 GMT
References: <8055@g.ms.uky.edu> <174@piring.cwi.nl> <39450@sun.uucp> <8255@g.ms.uky.edu> <182@wsccs.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 19

In article <182@wsccs.UUCP> terry@wsccs.UUCP writes:
>	I recently (well, last comdex) met the guy who wrote PC-WRITE...
>he's making gobs of money, so I don't believe the above statement to be true.
>He said "I don't sell software... software's all up here [picture hand waving
>in a circular motion, just above the head]  ...I sell manuals and support".
>Works for him.  He had 8 people in shipping, last I heard.

I'm tired of hearing this.  That company is the most prosperous of a group
that you can count on your fingers.  The other 20,000 "shareware" programs
have all been dismal financial failures that haven't returned anything,
and certainly not something similar to what the author would have made
as a programmer or consultant in regular employment.

As he points out, it's not even the shareware concept that's the success.
It's selling the manuals and support.  I daresay there are many companies
selling training, books and support for Lotus 1-2-3 or MS-DOS that have
made more money than anybody's made from shareware.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473