meo@stiatl.UUCP (Miles O'Neal) (12/27/89)
In article <sZYpBNy00Ugy49zXtL@andrew.cmu.edu> jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon Allen Boone) writes: |This seems highly unlikely. Not to cast dispersions on your |programming abilities, but even most *commercial* software needs |support - and very *few* have good documentation. So it is unlikely |that you will not be able to make some money at consultation. Second, Not to cast aspersions upon your dispersion-casting (8^), but some commercial software is done *right*. The problems are often ego(s) and/or artificial deadlines. Both CAN be dealt with, regardless of how often they are dealt with. While the perversity of the universe (and society, and software quality) tends to a maximum, there are always counterexamples. The trick is to be one. |there is nothing that *forces* people to pay you now. It only takes |on person to buy the software so that it can be pirated - most people |i talk to in day-to-day conversation do not pirate software because |they feel that the programmers deserve compensation. Strange. An incredible number of the people I know have no problem illegally copying software, including many software developers who get hot at the idea someone might copy their work... |> 2) A lot of other people, such as 103% of all the MIS-heads in the world, |> are going to lump it in with all that "public domain bulletin board stuff"- |>... |That is a problem indeed. The solution is not to stop contributing to |the public domain, but to change the type and quality of software |available in the public domain, thereby giving PD a better reputation. Same scenario, different perceptions. MIS-heads, as a class, are not likely to change their attitudes about this during my softwaring lifespan, regardless of the reality of the PD software situation. |I am aware of what it takes to run a company. My dad has done that |same thing (trucking, not software) for the last 15+ years. However, |it does not take a company to write good software. So, while a For large software projects, it takes a company (or one GOOD person a honking LONG time of uncompensated time). |company may well need to charge ridiculous prices to support its |expenditures and what it wants to do in the future, it seems that |perhaps they should offer fewer benefits to their employees and use |cheaper methods of doing what they are doing now....(using pd Right, we'll just forget the vacations & paid sick leave, let the government do the health care (thereby at least doubling the costs overnight via bureaucracy - which costs us all more!), and maybe give annual lowers instead of raises? |software, perhaps?)...and then they wouldn't have to charge so much. |After all, like Frank Zappa, you guys are just in it for the money, |right? Hey, bucko, we SAID that. Maybe YOU got a wealthy uncle paying your bills, or wanna live in a socialist state, but a lot of us are happy right here in the here and now, and for lots of us, that's sans a Sugar Daddy, and in the USA, which isn't socialist yet... |... However, as long as the answer to ridiculous |prices for software is "it's life - deal with it", then the only I never said that. In fact, as I have stated before, I share the FSF's revulsion towards the current state of affairs, softwarewise. |reasonable answer i can give to critics of the GPL is "that's life - |deal with it" or "put up or shut up!" or something equally as flippant |(check my .sig :-) Gee, the 1st IS pretty flippant 8^), and as for the 2nd, I'm working on it! |I haven't worked for a software development company yet this century. |Howver, i know that some companies such as Sierra On-Line used to |treat their programmers to extragavent parties and incredible benefits |that were "barely coverd by the cost of their software". Do i feel If this is where your ideas of standard benefits comes from, then no wonder uou have such a warped view of things! At least as far as what makes a company, what benefits are like, etc... trust me; this type of thing is very out of the ordinary, at least anywhere in the southeastern US! And I know of nobody on the west coast working anywhere like that. |sympathetic when people pirate their software? Doubtful. Maybe if |they had spent a little more of their personal funds and a lot less of |their company funds for these things, then i would sympathise more. So, what's the diff? If they had spent personal funds, which they got via pay from SOL, guess what? They'd get it back somehow. Secondly, a LOT of the people involved there took eNORmous personal risks to work for SOL (financially, carerer-wise, etc). They expected a high payback. Thirdly, regardless of their chosen lifestyle, piracy is immoral. And please don't bother to compare SOL pirates and, say, Robin Hood. SOL was selling *games*, and not robbing poor people of their very ability to live, so it's not even a close comparison... Which does not imply either way what I think of Robin Hood! -Miles O'Neal {yr fave backbone here}!emory!stiatl!meo