Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!ukma!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!bill
From: bill@proxftl.UUCP (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: free versions of complex software (Re: So let's talk about FSF)
Message-ID: <780@proxftl.UUCP>
Date: 18 Sep 88 05:22:22 GMT
References: <720@proxftl.UUCP> <14061@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <756@proxftl.UUCP> <1@elgar.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@proxftl.UUCP (T. William Wells)
Organization: Proximity Technology, Ft. Lauderdale
Lines: 63
Summary:
Expires:
Sender:
Followup-To:
Distribution:
Keywords:

In article <1@elgar.UUCP> ag@elgar.UUCP (Keith Gabryelski) writes:
: In article <756@proxftl.UUCP> bill@proxftl.UUCP (T. William Wells) writes:
: >Not likely.  The diversity of abilities and knowledge needed to
: >make our kind of software isn't likely to come together for the
: >purpose of creating free software.
:
: It already has:
:
: [listing of various well known free programs]

Excuse me, but please read my sentence again: it is talking about
*our* kind of software, not just any software.  The free spelling
checkers out there are rather primitive compared to the stuff we
sell.  I'm hoping that no one will take this as commercial hype,
but I haven't seen anything remotely comparable to our spelling
system.  (N.B.  We do not sell user interfaces, so what I am
comparing our stuff with is the underlying code, not the display
stuff.) If anyone thinks that they know of a better, I'd be glad
to hear of it.

: >But anyway, even if it did, we'd be moving on to bigger and better
: >things.
:
: If I haven't completely misunderstood, you are saying that once a free
: product is released, it is immediately outdated (or will be in a short
: period of time).

You have misunderstood.  My statement referred to the fact that,
for certain kinds of software (like ours), the normal course of
events is for a commercial outfit to write their version; then
noncommercial types might write a better version.

It is often the case that the free version is better than the
original.  This comes from the nature of this kind of software.
You see, what we are doing requires the cooperation of diverse
individuals, but the final product is not one that people were
motivated enough to write, given the difficulty of it.  But there
was a market for it, and so we developed a product.

As time goes on, the effort to create the product decreases,
because of, among other things, better computer systems, better
programming tools, and an increased availability of the knowledge
needed to build the product; as a result, various individuals or
small groups then do their versions.  Of course, they have the
benefit of learning from our mistakes, better tools, and more
effective computer systems.  These are why they can build a
better version.  These people are also often better motivated
than those who build commercial products (though not in our
case), and they are also not hindered by nasty things like
deadlines.  These, too, contribute to the possibility of better
versions.  My own guess is that there will be equivalent free
spelling checkers in perhaps five years or so, but I'd be
surprised to see them in less than three.

What I was saying is that, as time goes on, even if some people
decide to do free spelling checkers, equivalent to ours, we will
go on to do something different which, again, is probably beyond
the current means and interests of those who write free
software.

---
Bill
novavax!proxftl!bill