Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 18:58:16 10/31/99
Go up one level in this thread
On October 31, 1999 at 20:17:56, Micheal Cummings wrote: >On October 31, 1999 at 15:15:39, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>On October 31, 1999 at 14:54:12, Pillsbury wrote: >> >>>Hi >>> >>>Well....Here is a suggestion. >>> >>>Take a survey of how many are using a particular freeware. And then start >>>selling the same product at a cost equivalent to the commercial ones ( The Top >>>Ones!). Take another survey. >>> >>>I can easily guess what would be the outcome! >>> >>>Anybody who publishes a freeware is earning money from somewhere else. They >>>should make it free and start charging money for their freeware, if they are >>>confident of their freeware. >>> >>>I do not mean to upset anyone. These are the bitter facts of life. If someone >>>wants to refute this then take up the challenge! >>> >>>Thanks. >>> >>>karthick >> >> >>Here's some questions for you: >> >>(1) what is _the_ most-used unix implementation world-wide? >> >>(2) under unix, what is _the_ most used graphical windowing system, world-wide? >> >>(3) what is _the_ standard e-mail transport utility world-wide? >> >>(4) what is _the_ standard ftp server software world-wide? >> >>(5) what is _the_ standard httpd (web) server software world-wide, excepting >>windows which often uses a microsoft product). >> >>The list goes on and on. And one hint: _all_ of the above are answered by >>public-domain software products. > >But take the point that for what you state when you look at all other freeware >prgrams on the market, even though they play are large part in the scheme of >things, they still would make up about 0.02% of the 3% of good freeware programs >out there. > >For every good freeware program you state, I could find and give you 100 crap >freeware programs, Just goto freeware download sites and look at the quality of >most of the programs. > And your point would be? Can you say "windows 95"? Which has the absolutely most unreliable networking known to man. Which crashes so often the reboot operation is S.O.P. And then there is NT, which seems to run fine. so 1-1. And we are commercial. Tax software? I tried something other than Turbo-tax last year. Absolute piece of sh**. Turbotax comes back to my house this year. Both cost over 50 bucks a pop. You can find lousy freeware, you can find bargins. You can do the same for commercial software. >Lets say given a poll, if a person had a choice between any commercial chess >program as well as his choice of any freeware chess program, which do you think >he would use the most. Commercial ? Here's a trivia question for you: How many _different_ internet hosts have downloaded a copy of crafty source or a crafty executable? This does not include book downloads or EGTB downloads. How many would you guess? I'll delay giving you the current stat. But start your guessing at 6 digits. At least. And I am talking about direct anonymous ftp from _my_ web site where we log every transfer. Gambitsoft and others are not counted. > >When I hear people want to know about freeware chess, it is cause they do not >have enough money to buy a commercial product. And they want the strongest >Freeware they can get their hands on. The freeware programs can, I'll bet, beat you easily. Because they can beat me. So 'strongest' is meaningless unless you use one to play on a chess server, which is not so common for commercial programs (no auto interface except for the CSTal two-computer lash-up). When you are splitting firewood, is an 8 pound sledge heavy enough? Or will a 16 pounder help even more? After a while, more pounds does _not_ equate to better splitting. > >I take your point of good freeware, and those can take up a very large part of >computer program usage by people in certain areas (like the internet). But they >are also a very small percentage of the whole market. Which is the point I an >trying to make. 3% good, 97% crap. I think your numbers are way off. I think that commercial and freeware programs have an _equal_ number of good examples and flops.
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