To:     pic microcontroller discussion list
Subject:        RE: Cracked[becomes OT] [WAY OT!]



Bill Westfield wrote:

                > To claim that one should give away software for free, and
make money on
                > "support", "because it's a service economy" is equivilent
to denying that
                > creativity has value - instead postulating that only labor
has value.

                > This is evil.

Wouldn't go as far as "evil", but there certainly is something  wrong with
the
"service oriented" attitude.

In such scenario, software authors would put themselves
out of business by trying to write easy to use and bug free software.

You're most likely to end up with "free" software that contains built-in
"bugs" and
"undocumented features" that are there for the sole purpose of generating
support service revenue.

.... a particularly successful software firm comes to mind, except their
product
isn't free in the first place, and their support service is rather lousy.

I would much rather pay my money up-front for a product that is developed
for
reliability and ease of use, rather than trickling my money and TIME on the
phone,
listening to hours of 'elevator-music' and dealing with clue-less support
staff.

The way I see it, a company providing free bug-reporting and
difficulty-support service
is likely to be genuinely interested in developing a robust and decent
product. If you
don't pay for their software, they'll go under, and you're going to be left
with "free" rubbish
that will NEVER work quite right.

Over time, only the software firms that make money will survive, as
programmers and
software engineers (still) eat food, wear clothes, drink wine, etc....    We
- the
end users, determine which software firms survive, by our buying/cracking
habits (among
many other things that influence the industry).
It's the survivor product that we are going to be stuck with in the future.


Alex

asedlak@gpupowernet.com.au



PS:   GNU is a gem!!!
         (I'm more than happy to admit that GNU, in a way, demolishes my
argument)

PSS:  Communism may look good on paper, but it has(and will) failed dismally
when
          applied/enforced in society...