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Subject: Price? A commercial program costs less than a free program

Author: Christophe Theron

Date: 00:05:49 11/01/99

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On October 31, 1999 at 21:50:25, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>Here is what I do in a typical week:  I edit and compile and debug (using a
>GUI debugger or a text debugger depending on 'mood') C programs.  I write
>papers using a text formatter.  I edit graphical images.  I run a browser
>to prowl the net looking for things.  I access many sites via anonymous ftp,
>as well as provide anonymous ftp for everyone wanting the crafty stuff and
>Eugene's stuff.  I handle about 50 email messages per day, and run an email
>client with folders, capable of replying to email or postint to usenet depending
>on how the email was delivered.  I read usenet news daily and post to it.  I
>run Java applets.  I run network monitoring tools.  That is a part of a week's
>activities.  I play music CDs on my sound system thru my computer.  I run xboard
>to access ICC and to allow crafty to play there.
>
>The software I use to do all that cost me $2.95 to get a redhat 6.0 CD from
>cheapbytes.  How much did you pay for _your_ software?


The question of the price is indeed interesting.

As we have seen recently, a commercial program running on PII-300 (Chess Tiger
12.0) has won a match against Crafty running on PIII-500.

So in short you get more strength from
* a PII-300 + commercial program
than from
* a PIII-500 + Crafty 16.18

Given the difference in price between these hard/soft combinations, I say that
to reach a given strength, the commercial program is CHEAPER than Crafty.

This is true for other commercial programs as well, Tiger is just an example.


    Christophe



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