From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,TO_NO_BRKTS_FROM_MSSP autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 101deb,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,c9f2b97a84c48976 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 1073c2,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid1073c2,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-Thread: 1158e3,c9f2b97a84c48976 X-Google-Attributes: gid1158e3,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-14 08:56:18 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!hammer.uoregon.edu!feed.textport.net!newsranger.com!www.newsranger.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,ccomp.lang.clarion,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.vrml,comp.lang.java.advocacy From: Ted Dennison References: <9folnd$1t8$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3B1FE1FE.B49AE27F@noaa.gov> <9fotpi$4k6$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3b24dc21$1@news.tce.com> <3B25D5FB.15C9B240@dresdner-bank.com> <9g5as6$hbq$1@magnum.mmm.com> <9g5ipg$roq$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9g614i$at4$1@magnum.mmm.com> <9g7r02$mni$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9g840k$qjt$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <40gfitgrvd8cgu27r3vfib6eptmapb3pfl@4ax.com> <9g8lrk$37c$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9gaj53$nlp$1@nh.pace.co.uk> Subject: Re: Market pressures for more reliable software Message-ID: X-Abuse-Info: When contacting newsranger.com regarding abuse please X-Abuse-Info: forward the entire news article including headers or X-Abuse-Info: else we will not be able to process your request X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsranger.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 11:55:29 EDT Organization: http://www.newsranger.com Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 15:55:29 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8733 comp.lang.java.programmer:76351 comp.lang.pl1:1029 comp.lang.vrml:3798 comp.lang.java.advocacy:21108 Date: 2001-06-14T15:55:29+00:00 List-Id: In article <9gaj53$nlp$1@nh.pace.co.uk>, Marin David Condic says... > >I was simply trying to illustrate that there are a lot of off-the-shelf >products purchased that you install, use and never go back to the company >for anything. Not even upgrades. Maybe there is some percentage of the >population that will want some kind of support, but probably most of the >people who have "Space Invaders" or "Pong" aren't paying for that. How does >the company make money if they don't charge for the software? As I said, you don't *have* to stop charging for hard copies just because its (capital 'F') Free, and there are actually lots of ways that those companies *already* make money outside of charging for their software. (Starcraft even has a line of dolls...er..."action figures" out). There are lots more things they now do for free with the purchase price that folks would probably still pay for. >... If things like >that need to have higher reliability, there has to be some kind of market >pressure to do so. Ahh...that's the exact issue though. :-) The way things are set up now, there can be no market pressure for doing anything outside of pumping that baby out to as many stores as possible as quickly as possible. If you move away from the "copy toll" model, then suddenly you have to make your product good enough that people will want a hard-copy that they can easily reinstall after hard-drive wipes, etc. Suddenly you have an incentive to provide good hardcopy documentation. Suddenly you have an incentive to continue to support the product after initial release. --- T.E.D. homepage - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html home email - mailto:dennison@telepath.com