Very Computer

On my usual soap-box:

I can accept the concept of holding source-code back from users, if a
vendor is concerned about some kind of infringement.  But besides wanting
honest advertising and marketing, and the right to a refund if the
marketing and advertising statements are not met FULLY, I have a couple
other things I want to see in Linux commercial, proprietary software:

- Guaranteed source escrow.
- Full disclosure of all file formats.
- Full disclosure of all public interface formats.
- Justification of pricing.

If a company goes out of business, or the software developer dies, or
quits, or whatever, I really believe that those who have licenses to the
software should be able to continue supporting it for themselves.

One thing I have always HATED about proprietary software is that some
software vendors DO NOT FULLY PUBLISH THEIR FILE FORMAT SPECIFICATIONS.
That, in my opinion, is as shady as you can get.

"Even if [commercial/proprietary software is] junk, it might be better than
nothing. If nothing else, it
adds depth to the market."

So how much do you charge people for junk?  Pricing justification will
definitely establish that; I think one justification I will NOT accept is:
"It's the only game in town."  That is something the human race ought to
grow out of.  I think it should be illegal to "laugh all the way to the
bank."  I really do.  Remember;  software provides functionality that
affects people's lives in one way or another.  Laughing all the way to the
bank is, essentially, laughing at human suffering.  Especially nowadays.

I believe we, as a Linux community, should encourage these things in our
commercial software vendors by avoiding those vendors who do not live up to
them.

So, have at me!  What do you think?

--Chuck

Quote:>- Justification of pricing.

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I think what I'm trying to drive at here is that I'd like to see Linux as a
showcase for honest advertising, so that people who see an advertised
product can count on getting what they pay for.  So far, I've been fairly
happy with what I've seen.

I'd like to hear other opinions though: what has been your experience with
advertised Linux products vs. what you actually got when you plunked down
your money?

--Chuck

The biggest problem with commercial systems is that the company can
cease to exist, taking a programs source code with it. . .

This provision is unlikely, as the companies in question will not wish
to be forced to release source when they remain in business, but stop
supporting a program, as the souce may well include reusable pieces that
are part of programs that are still being supported.

Still, it'd be nice, wouldn't it?  Personally, I'd be more inclined to
pay for a program that was released as source than I would to pay for
a program that was released as binary only, because that way I'd be
able to fix it.  And IMO, the company stands no more chance of having
its program pirated that way, then any other.  The benefits, especially
in the Linux community, are obvious.

I grabbed a copy of the freedom lite desktop source, and compiled it.

Darn thing gave so many warnings that I was sure that it wouldn't compile
at all.  I'm gonna fix those warnings and send the source back when time
permits.  The scary thing about this, was that it shows just how poor the
source of a commercial progam can be. . .

John S.

Quote:>I'd like to hear other opinions though: what has been your experience with
>advertised Linux products vs. what you actually got when you plunked down
>your money?

  I bought a copy of Motif from a reseller a year or so ago, which didn't
  work out (Lasermoon motif didn't, at that time, deal with a.out in
  any reasonable way.)  I then *ed to the reseller, who replaced the
  defective product with Redhat Motif, which is a superior product in
  every way.  I bought from the reseller because I'd heard good things
  about them on the net and elsewhere, and they easily met the service
  expectations I had for them (I believe they've merged with Redhat,
  but I'm not sure, and for the life of me I can't remember their name.)

  I bought a copy of netscape about 6 months ago, which wasn't quite so
  overwhelmingly favorable -- I bought it knowing that it was not
  supported by Linux, but hoping that it soon would be.  I exchanged
  email with the people at netscape about this, and they offered me the
  chance to return it for credit, but around that time I needed to set
  up a Windows 95 machine as a test client for McAfee's WebShield, and
  just transfered the license to that machine.  I WISH I could pay
  netscape for a Linux copy of navigator, because it's all in all a good
  product and I'd like to encourage their contributions to the Linux
  marketplace.

  I've bought two copies of Xinside's Accelerated X product now, after
  much delay.  Once again, I'd heard from them on the net, and after
  evaluating a demo copy of their software found it to be perfect in
  every respect except that it would eat my monitor settings (80x30 or
  80x25 with a 9x20 character cell) whenever it started up, exited, or
  let me switch consoles.  I complained about it, did not get a
  satisfactory response, and dropped the issue for about a year, until I
  got fed up with XFree86's, umm, overly-technical setup procedure (I
  have about 20 video cards, which I was then rotating into and out of
  my X machine to find the one with the best performance) and tried an
  evaluation copy.  The same monitor eating features were still there,
  so I complained again, but this time placed an order with Xinside for
  a copy conditional on them fixing this bug.  Four days later, I got a
  call from an X inside salesman to tell me that the bug was fixed and
  would I like to place an order?  And when the order arrived,
  Accelerated X exceeded my expectations by a LONG way; setup is
  comparable to that of setting up the console on a Windows or Mac
  machine (if you don't mind ickytext(tm)), the performance is superior,
  and the ickytext parts of the installation is extraordinarily well
  documented.

  (I'd like to say something good about McAfee's VirusScan for Linux and
  WebShield, but since I wrote them I'm not really in a position to say
  how they'd be as something I bought ;-)

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Quote:>The biggest problem with commercial systems is that the company can
>cease to exist, taking a programs source code with it. . .

Quote:>Still, it'd be nice, wouldn't it?  Personally, I'd be more inclined to
>pay for a program that was released as source than I would to pay for
>a program that was released as binary only, because that way I'd be
>able to fix it.  And IMO, the company stands no more chance of having
>its program pirated that way, then any other.

  I know that two of the companies I work for would be very unhappy if
  their core technologies were suddenly made available to their
  competition.  One of them would probably survive, since it has made
  the happy discovery that superior customer support is worth as much
  as the product, but the other one would probably die after the stock
  prices crashed and the principals bailed out.

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Quote:>   Perhaps, perhaps not.  The algorithms in the program may be of value
>   to the company, and if those algorithms get out (unless you're an
>   ATT or Microsoft, it would be expensive to patent and defend them)
>   your company has just become toast, because the algorithms can be
>   implemented by ANOTHER company that didn't need to spend a lot of
>   time developing those algorithms, but can simply leech off your R&D
>   dollars.

Quote:>   I know that two of the companies I work for would be very unhappy if
>   their core technologies were suddenly made available to their
>   competition.  One of them would probably survive, since it has made
>   the happy discovery that superior customer support is worth as much
>   as the product, but the other one would probably die after the stock
>   prices crashed and the principals bailed out.

  Peter

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Peter "Pit" Suetterlin                      http://www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/~pit
Universitaets-Sternwarte Goettingen

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