On Sat, Jun 26, 1999 at 12:30:39PM -0800, Peter wrote:
>
> This shows the whole problem with 'free' software; the writer gets no money
> from it so there is no ongoing support. After his initial burst of
> enthusiasm he moves to other things or goes back to school.  And on-going
> support IS needed.

Actually, it shows the whole problem with software
distributed without source code. The same problem
occurs with products from failed or otherwise terminated
businesses, as well as abandoned products from on-going
concerns; it is not exclusive to free software. The
main difference between free and commercial software,
when distributed without source, is that free software
tends to rattle around on ftp sites long after support has
ceased to be available, which often results in confusion or
disappointment for people like Juan.  Abandoned commercial
shrink-wrap software on the other hand, rattles around in
discount bins for years, frequently causing monetary loss
in addition to the disappointment.  Commercial software
sold only by mail order or web download is probably the
least likely to cause problems for new customers... it is
only customers who bought before the business closed who
are harmed.

Imagine the buyer of a copy of CorelCAD 1.0, for example.
That product was first made available, with much fanfare,
several years ago, and sold at the low price of $500
(IIRC).  I had my office buy a copy, but it was buggy as
hell and I never got much use out of it (it would crash an
burn on a regular basis, usually at just about the point
that you had invested a couple of hours in a drawing). But
they never released any patches, they never released any
later versions, and they eventually sold it -- I think
it was to IMSI, the TurboCAD people. The buyer tore the
product apart and used all the good bits of the code in
new products, but the product formerly known as CorelCAD
is totally dead and gone.  I've since bitten the bullet
and gottten my office to get me a copy of AutoCAD, and
I've never looked back.

Still, I have on occasion seen copies of the original
CorelCAD showing up in discount bins; a buyer of that
product would surely be greatly disappointed, and would be
out the $50 or whatever it had sold for, since shrink-wrap
return policies would preclude getting the money back.

Don't get me wrong... I'm no GPL bigot. I am perfectly
happy to buy and use commercial software, and in several
cases have proposed the purchase of even some very
expensive commercial software such as AutoCAD and Borland's
JBuilder Enterprise Edition. Wouter's JAL is probably a
good example of a sourceless free product that continues to
be well-supported, so there are counterexamples all around.

However, in all my years in the computer support
profession, I have learned to be very leery of software
that does not come with source code.  In general I am
extremely reluctant to us any such product as the basis
for something that will need to work for more than a couple
of years, because, in my experience, the chances are very
high that such a dependence will cause problems down the
road. It matters not whether the product is free or is
sold for money.

--Bob

--
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Bob Drzyzgula                             It's not a problem
bob@drzyzgula.org                until something bad happens
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