Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!mccc!pjh
From: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: PK361.EXE
Message-ID: <771@mccc.UUCP>
Date: 21 Aug 88 23:51:57 GMT
References: <3656@bsu-cs.UUCP>  <761@mccc.UUCP> <1959@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg)
Organization: The College On The Other Side of Route 1
Lines: 25

In article <1959@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
...In article <761@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) writes:
...>SEA didn't write ARC as a commercial product, but as shareware.  They
...>"built their customer base" via the generosity of BBSes!
...
...Doesn't this take all?  For years, hobbyists have been decrying the prices
...of commercially distributed software.  "Do it as shareware!" they said.
...
...And now if somebody actually succeeds, they get told it wasn't really
...their success, but due to the generousity of the people who handed the
...program around.
...
...Sheesh.
...-- 
...Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473


Nuts!  Before there was MSDOS shareware, there were CP/M give-aways. 
These were (generally) programs of at least the same quality as the
current crop of MSDOS "begware" but were simply given away by their
authors.  Apparently, some smart guy wrote a program under MSDOS and
asked for donations "if you like my program".  From that, we get today's
shareware -- programs written for profit by people who -- for whatever
reasons -- eschew the traditional marketing path.  They depend on BBS
sysops to make their stuff available, so if these unpaid guys do it,
these authors make some money.