NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/applications/3282

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 4.8 KB

Path: news.deltanet.com!fuz
From: [e-mail] (Scott Ellsworth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.newton.misc,comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: Users are selfish Was Re: crippled software
Date: 14 Mar 1996 00:18:04 GMT
Organization: Deltanet Communications, Inc.
Message-ID: <4i7ojs$[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <4hptl0$[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nfs3.delta.net

In article <[e-mail]>,
Jack Starmer <[e-mail]> wrote:
>In article <4hptl0$[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Scott
>Ellsworth) wrote:
>
>> My own definition, unless other information changes it is that freeware
>> is not free, merely something that someone else has funded the
>> development of.  Often, that someone is a federal agency or
>> grant-supported university spending (conceptually) my tax and pledge dollars.
>>
>
>I resent that statement.  I have released mutiple freeware offerings for
>FileMaker Pro.  No one "funded" the development.

You funded the development.  In the time you spent on the shareware or
freeware packages, you could have earned income performing other
activites, and money you spent on development tools is money you could
not spend on other things.  Therefore, I wouls say it is pretty clear
that someone paid for it - YOU.  You just happen to be exceptional, in
that you used only your own personal resources.

Let me repeat: OFTEN that someone is ...

In many, many cases, freeware is distributed by students, and is often
written using machines which belong to a university system.  Other cases
involve professors whose support is through grant or pledge money which
prevents most forms of financial return.  In essence, these people are
accepting the money they get in return for free redistribution of the
fruits of thier labors.  I have no objection to that, but I do protest
most strongly any attempt by those who have written freeware with outside
support to denigrate those who would like to get paid for thier labors.

If you wish to write freeware using your own resources, then by all means
do so.  There are some very good reasons to do it.  In adition, it does
give you bragging rights.

If you can get support from the outside for doing it, so much the better
for you.  If a freeware author _does_ get outside support, they do not
have much room for moral oneupmanship when it comes to distribution of
the end product.  Remember that this thread began with someone calling
shareware a blight.

>  I released the software
>for free.  You don't have to pay for it.  I, in no way, purchased my
>computer or my copy of FileMaker Pro for the purpose of developing
>software.  I thought it would be fun to do and I did it.  Everything was
>already paid for.

As I said - you are an exception.  Look at the return addresses for many
of the people involved with both the FSF and the BSD projects.  A fair
number of those are paid for out of several pockets.  Some of which are
public.

>> > Why not be a freeware programmer instead?
>>
>> Because then you get no return from your investment.
>>
>
>This is just not true.  I have received a large amount of eMail from
>people who use the software I released.  All of them from people thanking
>me for making the FM Pro template.  Some from people who were surprised it
>was "free".  It makes me feel good to have made a usefull tool for some of
>the folks out there on the internet.  For me that is a tremendous return
>on my investment.

Well enough.  I am glad that you get this return, and that you have
sufficient income from other sources to cover the cost of needed tools
and updates.  For some, however, there needs to be a fair amount of
financial return for a project to make it feasible.  In my own case, I
cannot afford development tools costing more than ~$100 as a "would be
fun" expense.  Up until recently, this restricted my Newton development
severely.  The needed documentation came as part of a $500 development
system.  Now that the documentation for the Newt is online, it is a much
smaller issue.  Utilities that I would have released as shareware, hoping
to get back the %500 for the environment, can now be released as
freeware, since I do not have that large chunk of capital to recoup.

(Frankly, I would rather spend the $500 on a new 4-track or mixer, for
which I will likely not get paid anytime soon.  Everything does not have
to generate revenue, but if certain things do not, they will not be done)

>jack ([e-mail])
>
>Author of CDLite, CDLite Pro, and CDLite Classical for Filemaker Pro.

--
Scott Ellsworth          [e-mail]
"When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment
results" - Calvin Coolidge, (Stanley Walker, City Editor, p. 131 (1934))
"The barbarian is thwarted at the moat." - Scott Adams