CompuServe Messages

There are also people, possibly a majority of Amiga owners, who have no idea there is PD or shareware available for the machine. Since they don't know about it, they probably have no strong feelings about it. To be brutally honest, much of the support, docs, etc., which you keep touting as the reason you're in love with commercial software, is hardly something to brag about. Quite frequently, the documentation is either unusable or virtually non-existant. (A one page, mimeographed sheet on a piece of hardware comes to mind immediately. I've had the same on software, complex software, as well.) If the company doesn't go out of business, you might (MIGHT) get some support from them, but many Amiga vendors fail. Even when they don't, they may not be too responsive. (I could name names, but that would not accomplish a thing.) Admittedly, much PD or shareware suffers the same failings, but at least you don't have a fairly large investment in those offerings. PD and shareware are viable, and in some cases preferable, sources of software for the Amiga owner. When a magazine does not mention them, it is doing no service to the Amiga community.