GNU considered harmful to softwa - (nf)

[notes at ucbcad.UUCP]

#R:watmath:-592400:ucbesvax:16700002:000:2015
ucbesvax!turner    Oct  9 15:29:00 1983

Since it looks like we're getting into the more religious aspects of this
argument, I feel compelled to add a few points of my own:

- Brad doesn't like to compete with public domain software.  Understood.
  From a marketing point of view, however, public domain software is
  just a product marked "$0.00".  It has a price, like any other.  Zero.
  You can't PAY people to take your software, so the only way to undersell
  public domain is to do a much better job.  Golly, Brad: looks like you'll
  have to do a much better job.  Isn't that what capitalism is about?

- A friend of mine took a z80 C compiler out of the public domain.  In
  terms of features supported, it sucked.  It was structurally sound,
  however, so he was able to modify it and pass it on a >$0.00 price.
  This was good, because he was broke.  Public domain software gave him
  some valuable experience, and much-needed money.  C got spread around
  a little more, and the resulting mobility gave some smaller companies
  a bit more leverage.  Now, of course, they are busy killing each other
  off (again, good capitalism), but with better products than they might
  otherwise have had.  So what's wrong with that?

- Is software a product or a service?  From the point of view of measuring
  units sold, it's a product.  But that's a simplistic rendering of the
  market--viewing it as a service is closer to home, from the perspective
  of the average programmer.  When I get a non-trivial piece of software,
  I want *support*--and I'll pay for that.  It doesn't matter whether
  my UN*X cost $0.00 dollars or $500.00--I'm gonna need bug fixes.
  And that's what pays the average programmer's salary: supporting code.
  Money saved by getting generic UN*X will almost certainly be spent
  (over a longer period of time) on support and enhancements.  Nobody
  gets rich quick, but maybe more people get a chance to make their
  ideas fly.  Again, that's good capitalism.

See you in net.flame,
	Michael Turner (ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner)