Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pacbell!hoptoad!hsfmsh!dumbcat!marc
From: marc@dumbcat.UUCP (Marco S Hyman)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Paying for Shareware (Was: Re: v09i070: newsclip 1.1...)
Summary: It's not just shareware... Sturgeon's Law.
Message-ID: <135@dumbcat.UUCP>
Date: 4 Feb 90 21:39:12 GMT
References: <137@sneezy.tcom.stc.co.uk> <15398@well.UUCP> <1134@utoday.UUCP> <13011@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <3032@netxcom.DHL.COM> <13742@s.ms.uky.edu> <7146.25c595d1@dit.ie> <13912@s.ms.uky.edu> <1201@utoday.UUCP> <1990Feb2.194315.3924@pegasus.uucp>
Organization: MH Software, Hayward, Ca.
Lines: 25

In article <1990Feb2.194315.3924@pegasus.uucp> richard@pegasus.UUCP (Richard Foulk) writes:
    A request for a donation is fine by me, and I'll pay it if I like
    the software enough.  A demand is not okay.  I have no respect for
    the sleaze-balls that lie to your face and try to coerce you to send
    them money on false pretenses.

It's not just shareware.  I got a plain business size envelope in the mail
the other day with ``Statement Inclosed'' printed on the outside.  The
statement (and that's what it looked like) was for a $10 contribution to
some charity.  I can only wonder how many they fooled.

As for shareware on the net: How many net readers are willing to run
binaries without sources?  How many net reader's companies, schools, etc.,
will allow binaries pulled off the net to be used?  I don't know, but
suspect that binary distribution is on the wane.  If true, the issue is, or
soon will be moot.

And for shareware source distribution -- shareware, like most other things,
suffers from Sturgeon's Law (90% is crap).  After looking at a bunch of that
crap you become amazed that it works at all.  (I'm not saying non-shareware
products are any better, just that the code is hidden so it can't scare you
as much.)

-- 
// marc				{ames,pyramid,sun}!pacbell!dumbcat!marc