taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor) (01/18/87)
A recent issue of the "FidoNet News" (FidoNet is a public PC network) had an interesting article on shareware: [for those that don't know, shareware is software that is freely distributed with the understanding that the people who find it useful will 'buy' a copy off the author by sending money to them. It's a nice idea, but...] -------- > Shareware is Nowhere > > I'm sure many of you have read at least a few of my diatribes about > shareware. How many of you listened? Quite a number, I'm sure, but > apparently not enough. > > Quite simply put, shareware is dying out. The signs are all around us. > > o PC Outline was originally released as shareware, and was even > reviewed by PC Week as being better than its non-shareware > competition. But the last I heard was that it's now being > marketed by Brown Bag Software. > > o Chris Dunford wrote an elegant command editor for DOS called > CED (and no, Chris's middle initial is not "E"). Almost anyone > "in the know" about PC's uses CED. It was originally released > as shareware. The latest version is called PCED, and is not > shareware. > > o One of the more popular data base programs for the PC is > PC-File, a shareware product of Buttonware, Inc. Buttonware > has now released a new version of PC-File that is, among other > things, relational. It is also not shareware any more. > > o Bob Hartman has written all sorts of little goodies for FidoNet > sysops, including Rovermsg and Renum. These were released as > shareware. Bob reports that the total contributions received > so far wouldn't buy him and his wife dinner out. Bob is now > writing a faster and more powerful alternative to EchoMail. > And guess what? It ain't gonna be shareware. > > o The Headlands Press started the whole shareware phenomenon with > its famous PC Talk communications program. They've announced > that they're coming out with a new version, and even THAT won't > be shareware any longer! > > I could go on and on. The examples abound. But your own boards provide > the best proof of all. When was the last time you saw a really good > shareware product come out that wasn't crippled in some way? > > Sometimes the crippling isn't that bad. For example, the Instant Recall > database manager in its shareware version will handle an 80k database, but > if you pay the fee you get a NON-shareware version that'll handle a 2 meg > database. Other examples include FansiConsole, which comes in a fully > functional form, but you have to pay to get the manual before you can > figure out how to use it. Then there are Ron Bemis's multitudinous > FidoNet utilities that send home notes to papa until you pay for a > registered version. > > But still, a cripple is a cripple. One way or another, almost all > shareware these days is either crippled so you can't use it all, or does > something you don't like, or isn't all that good to begin with. (Note > that I said ALMOST all! There are always exceptions.) > > And who's fault is it? Is it the authors' fault? Not at all. Your > average software author quite rightly feels that he deserves to be > compensated for his work. After a few all nighters chasing one more bug or > nailing down one more feature, almost anyone will start to wonder why they're > doing all this for nothing in return. > > No, it's YOUR fault, unless you happen to be one of the statistical > few who actually pays for all the shareware you use. > > Shareware was a noble experiment in trusting the users, and now it's almost > over. For a couple of years now shareware authors have been telling you > that if you didn't shell out for what you use, then pretty soon you'd stop > seeing a cheap bounty of good software. By all appearances, nobody > really believed that prediction, so now it's coming to pass. > Enjoy shareware while it lasts. It won't last long. -------- Anyway, that got me thinking about what shareware is, why it does (and doesn't) work, and how that is a reflection on the changing computer community... It seems that back in the early days of computing there was a strong feel of what Steven Levy, in his book "Hackers", calls the "Hacker Ethic". This included the precept that information is free and that to enhance and modify software is an intrinsically good thing. It's hard to cricize this sort of attitude, even if it is perhaps a trifle naive based on the world we live in. But, it was from this sort of basic assumption of honestly and honour that the idea of shareware came from. The knowledge that you could give away your software and that people who used it would say "hey. this is really useful. I'm going to thank the author for taking the time to write and debug it by *paying for it* as if I had bought it outright." A nice idea indeed. And for a good few years it really flourished. But now we're seeing a fundamental change in the user community of computers, especially home computers. It used to be that you had to be an `enthusiast' to want one of those strange, ugly, unfriendly things at home, but as we've progressed in technology (hardware and software) we've opened up the home computer community to include people who not only don't have the "Hacker Ethic", but don't even have any belief in the `integrity' of the computing environment. That is, I would venture to say that the vast majority of people who now use computers at home or (PC-class machines) in the office have no real interest in it as *a computer* but rather as a ``work tool'' or a ``game machine''. That's okay, but we've lost the original spirit of the computer community somewhere along the way. There really isn't much to be done. The Mac sealed that up. By releasing a computer "for everyone else", Apple has really ensured that the computer community is accessable to the entire population (or should we say the affluent group?). This isn't bad, don't get me wrong, but it *is* a change, and a change that will gradually see quite a few current systems die out or be abolished, to be replaced by more 'serious' systems that are 'businesses'. We can see that on the ARPAnet, for example. The ARPAnet is a huge network of Defense Dept. Machines (ARPA is the Defense Advanced Research and Projects Agency) that was started in the late 1960s with the "Hacker Ethic" as the fundamental ideal. This meant that information flowing through the network was 'free' - the host merely had to maintain their line - and that it was encouraged for people to meet others and *share information* through mailing lists, personal mail, ``news groups'' and so on. It worked wonders, and the ARPAnet is still going strong, but, as the PC community changed, so has the ARPAnet community. Rumour has it that within three years the system will institute a pay-per-packet replacement for the current 'free' network. The days of mailing lists and such will be gone. How many companies are going to pay for their employees to send love letters to their friends across the US? I'll end this note here, hoping for some interesting conversation in the group. I'd especially like to hear views as to why shareware and such have started to fail... -- Dave Taylor
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/08/87)
Perhaps, one among the many reasons why shareware is failing is the number of dealers who feel that they can package "FREE" software as part of the system. I have had a number of IBM-PC clone dealers ask be to put together a BUSINESS package for them. In each case I have refused. Another reason is the chase for better?, and faster, and etc etc hardware nearly every day a new board etc comes on the market. People are just "pooring" their money into hardware and they grab what software they can. The concept used by products like Instant Recall etc. is good. It lets the user try the product first. How many times have we all been burnt by a program that perports to do something only to find that it's a lemon.... down the drain goes a few hundred bucks.
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/08/87)
Perhaps, one among the many reasons why shareware is failing is the number of dealers who feel that they can package "FREE" software as part of the system. I have had a number of IBM-PC clone dealers ask be to put together a BUSINESS package for them. In each case I have refused. Another reason is the chase for better, faster, and etc. etc. hardware: nearly every day a new board etc comes on the market. People are just "pooring" their money into hardware and grab what software they can. The concept used by products like Instant Recall etc. is good. It lets the user try the product first. How many times have we all been burnt by a program that purports to do something only to find that it's a lemon.... down the drain goes a few hundred bucks.
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/08/87)
Perhaps, one among the many reasons why shareware is failing is the number of dealers who feel that they can package "FREE" software as part of the system. I have had a number of IBM-PC clone dealers ask be to put together a BUSINESS package for them. In each case I have refused. Another reason is the chase for better, faster, and etc. etc. hardware: nearly every day a new board <etc> comes on the market. People are just "pooring" their money into hardware and grab what software they can. The concept used by products like Instant Recall etc. is good. It lets the user try the product first. How many times have we all been burnt by a program that purports to do something only to find that it's a lemon.... down the drain goes a few hundred bucks.
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/08/87)
Perhaps, one among the many reasons why shareware is failing is the number of dealers who feel that they can package "FREE" software as part of the system. I have had a number of IBM-PC clone dealers ask be to put together a BUSINESS package for them. In each case I have refused. Another reason is the chase for better, faster, and etc etc hardware; nearly every day a new board <etc> comes on the market. People are just "pooring" their money into hardware and grab what software they can. The concept used by products like Instant Recall etc. is good. It lets the user try the product first. How many times have we all been burnt by a program that purports to do something only to find that it's a lemon.... down the drain goes a few hundred bucks.