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- Path: service-2.agate.net!usenet
- From: Richard Grant <treehaus@midcoast.com>
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.newton.misc,comp.sys.amiga.applications
- Subject: Re: Users are selfish Was Re: crippled software
- Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 17:21:21 -0400
- Organization: Threnody Engine
- Message-ID: <3140A4D1.2FD7@midcoast.com>
- References: <150773@cup.portal.com> <4lCkP4eSMV1ZEHpSJ2@transarc.com> <ud4ts37sru.fsf@random.pc-labor.uni-bremen.de> <4hllsv$gc8@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz> <4hmvq7$5qm@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> <5r68cgwjsj.fsf_-_@ritz.mordor.com> <badger.826246592@phylo.life.uiuc.edu>
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-
- Jonathan Badger wrote (excerpted):
- > ... by definition, shareware authors are amateur programers who
- program for fun, and not
- > to put food on their table.... In the UNIX world shareware is basically non-existant and
- > freeware is plentiful -- gcc, emacs, TeX, the X Window System, hell,
- > even whole UNIX-compatible operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD
- > are freeware.
-
- Oh, come on. I've never written software (except for diddling
- with HyperCard for my own uses) but I am a full-time writer of fiction
- and book reviews and that sort of thing, and I can attest that there
- are many valid reasons to write, to want to get your work distributed,
- and to hope to get a bit of money out of it. True, some of the
- writing I do -- such as this newsgroup post -- it totally for fun and
- for free. Other stuff is strictly professional. But there's a
- sizeable category in the middle: things that I want to write, that
- will consume a good bit of time and talent, and that I am not prepared
- to do without some sort of compensation, however modest. After all,
- everyone's time is worth *something*, and the talent to do certain
- kinds of work (such as write decent shareware apps) is pretty rare.
- BTW, my understanding of the situation is that the reason the UNIX
- world is so full of freeware is that most of it was written by
- computer professionals who were (and are) being paid by academic
- institutions or other employers. Their remuneration does not come in
- the form of teeny little shareware fees, but they aren't giving their
- talent away, either. As to whether they're having fun, who knows? We
- can hope.
-
- --
- "Did you ever hear such a Windfucker, as this?"
- (Ben Jonson, 1609) This material is knowingly made
- available to minors in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- http://www.midcoast.com/~treehaus
-