Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucsdhub!esosun!seismo!uunet!mcvax!fmr
From: fmr@cwi.nl (Frank Rahmani)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: free versions of complex software (Re: So let's talk about FSF)
Message-ID: <600@sering.cwi.nl>
Date: 18 Sep 88 19:43:53 GMT
References: <780@proxftl.UUCP>
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 43

> 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 don't know your product, because I could never afford it (but then
I don't know a Rolls Royce and I'm still perfectly happy!). If it
can match up to Witchpen (the best,fastest,most extended,cheapest
($55) and multilingual (even translating) spelling checker) it's
o.k., otherwise I wouldn't even want to know about it.
> It is often the case that the free version is better than the
> original.  This comes from the nature of this kind of software.
Now we are talking the same language! A free program is ALWAYS
better, thats logical. Wouldn't you like a free bike if you
don't have the $$ to buy a car?? And as slow as it is it has
even advantages over the car (at least in our traffic). By the
way I hate your word original: most free programs (if not all)
are far away from being just copies of an original.
> and they are also not hindered by nasty things like deadlines
Do yoy REALLY believe this?
>  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.
There are more than enough PD packages (or programs developped
at Universities that are given away for free) that you can't
buy at all, just because companies are not interested or don't
have the experience to develop them. There are enough PD or for
free substitutes for those licensed or hard to get programs. I
think there's no USEFUL commercial package around that has no
free counterpart.Whatever you develop, somebody will make a PD
version and even if it is not as perfect as your product, it
is a thousand times better: EVERYBODY can get it, it doesn't
cost ANYTHING and we get SOURCE!!!
fmr@cwi.nl
-- 
It is better never to have been born. But who among us has such luck?
Maintainer's Motto:
	If we can't fix it, it ain't broke.
These opinions are solely mine and in no way reflect those of my employer.