PocketGear Sales Ratio vs. Handango Sales Ratio

[damian]

[fzammetti]

I see MeumSimulacrum's point about free software and how it's an unfair advantage against commercial software... but truthfully, how many examples can you site OUTSIDE of IE vs. Netscape? I personally can't come up with one other.

My point is, while I think your point makes sense as stated, I also think that we're talking about an extremely small set of cases where the advantage can really be... well... taken advantage of!

I don't have a problem with free software insofar as if someone wants to give away the result of their hard work rather than try and make money off of it, fine. I see no problem with that. *I* will rarely if ever do it because I want to make money off my work except in some minor cases where I'm just feeling unusually generous, but I have no problem with people that don't feel the same way and want to give their stuff away.

What I <b>DO</b> have a big problem with is people that try and tell us that ALL software should ALWAYS be free and that I must release the source to anything I write. I find that position to be bonkers, to put it mildly, and I'm hearing variations on that theme more and more it seems.

[damian]

Yeah, i hate that too. Most apparent on slashdot.

[RICoder]

[soatari]

[damian]

[sponge]

Gov'ts have seen parts of the source to Windows, that's just about it.

[Sm!rk]

[Mike Wagstaff]

[Guest]

I don't think it's a question of morality... A free market economy, which I assume most reading this live and work under in some form or another, deals with prices that are set too high very nicely: the product simply doesn't sell.

You should keep in mind that anything you make will appear good to someone that can't do it. You may look at your creation and think it doesn't compare well to "professional" software, but that's not a reason to sell it if you want. If the price you set isn't correct for the product, as dictated by the potential purchasers of the product, you'll know it by a lack of sales.

Note that I'm not trying to convince you to sell your stuff. I think we all benefit from people giving away software, no matter what the quality of it.

And remember the story my father once told me... A couple's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. They call a mechanic who comes, inspects the car for a moment, then hits the engine with a hammer once and the car starts and runs normally. He then says "that will be $500, please" and the couple says "why so much for just hitting something with a hammer?", to which the mechanic replies "hitting the engine with the hammer costs you $5, the other $495 is for knowing where to hit it!"