On 06/02/2011 23:19, William "Chops" Westfield wrote:
>>>> >>>  [microchip charges $$$ for] not much more than repackaging and
>>>> >>>  distributing it...
> You left out "support."  A lot of "real" companies will happily pay
> much higher costs to have a compiler with some amount of support
> associated with it (hopefully a useful amount of support.)  Figure the
> average small company spends a significant percentage (5% ?) of its
> engineering time fiddling with "free" tools, and larger companies have
> at least one FTE doing tool support (probably true even if the tools
> are supported, but if paying $5000/y for external support cuts off a
> significant percentage of this, there's no way it isn't a good deal.)
> (interpreted uncharitably, the Gnu philosophy turns software authors
> from artists into janitors.  Meh.)
>

I think that was me, and it was pure conjecture based on some stuff I=20
read quickly.
On further reading (thanks Xiaofan) it looks as if there is probably=20
nothing to get upset about here. (Anything else would have been a=20
surprise for me - I have come to expect pretty good things from MC, and=20
have always had excellent support)
With the price tag, I agree it's nothing unusual, and most companies=20
will purchase without even knowing/caring whether there is a free=20
version, what the difference is, whether they could use that instead,=20
whether the price is unreasonable for the difference, and so on.=20
Certainly good support is absolutely worth it - easy to fall into the=20
false economy trap. I've seen quite few failed attempts (mostly at one=20
particular software place I worked ages ago) at avoiding this type of=20
thing but spending untold (expensive) man hours trying to do it in house=20
(needless to say the company is no longer in business)
I imagine it's mostly the small setups/hobbyists who are likely to care=20
about such things, and maybe move to a free platform instead. I know=20
what you are getting at with the GNU comment, but of course the GNU=20
"philosophy" has it's good points (like most things if used in the right=20
way)
 From a larger perspective I guess the cost is usually balanced somehow=20
anyway - if the IDE/software utilities are free the chips (or something=20
- dev boards, programmers etc) will (probably) cost more, and vice versa.
Some may prefer the cheapest chips but various payment options for=20
compilers and so on, and some will prefer having all the software "free"=20
and pay a bit extra on the chips.
If nothing else, one thing is for certain - it's hard to satisfy=20
everyone.. :-)

--=20
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