how are we doing?
John…
When you say it's not fair to compare commercial and PD software, I
agree.
Reason being, there are far too many examples of commercial programs trying
to enter the market when there are PD programs that *DO* the job better,
and cost either nothing, or significantly less. Further, the very nature of
PD software makes it more accessible than the retail sales method.
There are several examples. I saw a commercial program a few months ago
(tool manager, or something like that) that effectively duplicates what
programs like ToolsX and that sort of thing do. I know there are several PD
incarnations of the same type of thing. As Steve pointed out, no point
going commercial with it, but someone did and is likely making money from
it.
There are several other examples I could site, such as that wonderful virus
protection program put out by the guys who did Arkanoid for the Amiga. The
program saw little in the way of updates, and people invested in it as a
solid virus protector/eliminator. The product is now several years dead.
You can't generalize in this instance, I think. There are obviously some
awesome commercial packages that you won't find PD equivalents for. On the
other hand, as I pointed out, there are several PD 'ripoffs' that try and
exploit the market that the PD guys have already taken care of. A lot of
people will look at the commercial package and buy it, knowing there are PD
equivalents, thinking that if it's worth going commercial, it must be
better. Many times that has proven to be the wrong assumption to make.
Support for PD? Well, what is support anyways? Is it a program that is
written right the first or second time, and becomes a reliable part of your
environment, or is it something that takes years to get the bugs out of
(did someone say PageStream?)
I bought PageStream when it first came out. The program was a crashaholic,
documentation was not great, support was…%$*^. I paid a good price for
it, and I misplaced it in a move two years ago. I have no idea where it is,
and don't miss it. Mostly because I have two friends who use it, and
complain constantly about the bugs. Go figure.
Jim