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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c6c96fe0302f04f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-08-20 09:08:22 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!news.tufts.edu!uunet!dca.uu.net!news.chips.ibm.com!newsfeed.btv.ibm.com!news.btv.ibm.com!not-for-mail From: pontius@btv.MBI.com.invalid () Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: POLL: Would you use Ada more if... Date: 20 Aug 2002 15:48:49 GMT Organization: IBM Global Services North -- Burlington, Vermont, USA Message-ID: References: <3d5ce7f0.12192351@news.demon.co.uk> <3d5cfa8e.16958234@news.demon.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: kimon.btv.ibm.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: news.btv.ibm.com 1029858529 21570 9.61.131.220 (20 Aug 2002 15:48:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@btv.ibm.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 20 Aug 2002 15:48:49 GMT X-Newsreader: knews 1.0b.0 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:28256 Date: 2002-08-20T15:48:49+00:00 List-Id: In article <3d5cfa8e.16958234@news.demon.co.uk>, john.nospam@nospamassen.nospamdemon.co.uk (John McCabe) writes: > On Fri, 16 Aug 2002 14:44:22 +0200, Preben Randhol > wrote: > >>> Ask an accountant :-) > >>Say you want Debian GNU/Linux you can buy it as a CD and with printed >>Manual from a shop, > > Oh yes! That's right. But where can you buy e.g. GNAT (public) on a CD > in a box with a printed manual? > Assuming GNAT has made it into one of the archive collections, there are places like Cheapbytes where you can buy those. No printed manuals, and likely a half-dozen CDs, but pick the right set and GNAT would be somewhere on one of them. Seems to me that someone could set up a tiny business on the side in pseudo-competition with ACT in the sub-10-developer arena. Just begin by selling CDs and hardcopy manuals, maybe support for the public code version. Feed the fixes back to ACT in a symbiotic fashion. Don't know how much money there'd be in such a niche, though. >> but there is no other warrenties from that you >>download from the net. > >>Besides relying on CD-ROM releases only is >>inherently less secure than also using the net for updates. > > I don't disagree with these comments, but I'm a software > engineer/developer, not an accountant. > > If you go to your [large] company's accountat and say "there you go, > I've spent $1000 on software" and they say, "well, where is it?" and > you say "it's a file on my PC" what do you think they're going to say > to that? > Around here, you don't say, "I've spent..." You signify your wish to spend money on software, send it up through the bureaucracy, and eventually it becomes a Contract. Hopefully someone else has bought from the company before, in which case getting the Contract is easy. Otherwise, the lawyers have their fun with the licensing provisions for a while, until you hopefully get a Contract. Once you have a Contract, the accountants are happy. They don't get hung up on CDs, boxes, downloads or whatever. In some ways, it seems more enlightened, in other ways, a giant pain. Dale Pontius NOT speaking for IBM