From: jmsimon@acsu.buffalo.edu (Jeffrey M. Simon) Subject: Re: The free software myth and the commerical myth Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 20:41:28 GMT
In <1tbbmrINNmrl@no-names.nerdc.ufl.edu> kem@prl.ufl.edu (Kelly Murray) says:
>Cygnus is constantly held up as a shining example of
>the commercial opportunity of GNUism. I would like to understand
>just how successful this firm is. How many people does it employ?
>How much job security is there working for this firm? How well does
>it pay its employees?
I really don't know; I once heard that Cygnus takes home more than the
small _commercial_ software developers, just for supporting free wares.
>I would also like to mention that contrary to the support
>opportunity, most people don't care about support. They want
>software that helps solve their problem. This can often require
>support to get the software to work, but the best software doesn't
>need support. It seems that GNUism creates an incentive to develop
>software that needs support, at least if you want to create
>commercial opportunities.
I'd disagree with you here. I've written enough custom software to know
that most of my clients look for three things, in this order:
1) hand-holding and support (before, during, and after development)
2) a whiz-bang interface that looks good (doesn't matter how good
it really is, it just needs to _look_ good.)
3) a program that accomplishes the basic tasks
I've been hired after a company did a fantastic job on software and then
didn't document it (or answer phone calls), to write completely new
software (and 75% of the time, the customer has already paid the fees on
the first program when they hire me to rewrite it).
>Further I would add that it is constantly said that GNU software is better
>supported than commercial software. Why pay for commercial products that
>provide support, if you can use GNU stuff supported free
>via the net? Don't have net access? It's cheaper to get net access
>than to pay someone for support.
>
> -Kelly
To be blunt, the, how shall I put it delicately, computer illiterate of
the world that know enough to turn it on, log in (maybe) and run their
word processor would disagree with you.
It is much easier (and safer and less scary :-) to pick up a phone (oh -
the phone! I know how _that_ works) and call someone who can make all the
bad dreams go away, then it would be to use the modem (does the phone line
need to plug into the modem? Really? :-) log into the remote system
(or configure...SLIP?), find an address, send mail, ftp for patches,
patch source, recompile, etc.
I've been hired by companies who pay third party service organizations
$500,000.00 each year to maintain computer hardware that never breaks
down (in one case, a DEC VAX and 10 terminals) -- note that that fee
only covered emergency service, other calls were billed to a credit
card, $75/10 mins with a minimum call length of 30mins :-0
Cygnus and other such organizations are the only hope _free_ software
really has. Problem is, right now the fees are too high and the
popular press has nothing good to say about anything other than DOS,
Microsoft Windows (and Windows NT, which no one has much of a clue
about).
Flames not intended (even *if* my eyes had an eerie red glow :-)
J
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