[ic] Taking a Poll

Jim Balcom jim@idk-enterprises.com
Mon, 16 Apr 2001 18:03:00 -0400 (EDT)


On Mon, 16 Apr 2001, David Adams wrote:

DA>><guilt trip>For further
DA>>documentation efforts to be justifiable to the accountants, it's important
DA>>that we at least make some movement toward allaying the costs of producing
DA>>this documentation by selling these manuals.  I'll hope that many people who
DA>>read this list will be  buying them</guilt trip>.

I see no reason for a guilt trip on this.

I paid $500 for Shopsite and it won't do half the things that IC does
for free. With Shopsite I got a pre-compiled program and an assortment
of templates. I found no way to redesign the templates. And, there was
no way to modify the program. And, I paid $500 for it! (Oh! I mentioned
that already!)

The IC Source can be modified to suit. While it only comes with only 1
or 2 templates the tools are provided to make up whatever templates a
person can learn to make. And, it does not cost $500.

What's wrong with selling the manuals?

I've seen this done with quite a few pieces of software floating around
- for both (ugh) Windows and Linux. "Here, the software is free, but if
you will pay the registration fee, we will send you a printed manual
and register it."

For that matter, I see nothing wrong with having a registration
process. I am reminded of Bob Hartmann and Binkley. He put a place in
the cfg file for a registration key. And, vowed that Binkley would
always be free. Many of us put political statements in that spot. It
had absolutely no impact on the operation of the program. But, people
hate to see that phrase "Unregistered software"

Have a registration process that you charge for. People who register
get a nice manual. Perhaps when the server starts up it would say
"Unregistered version", or "Registration No: xxxxx". Absolutely no
difference in how it works. In fact, if it bugged people enough they
could go in the source code and remove that line and re-compile.

This way, the software stays free, and people who feel like
contributing some monetary support to Akopia (and, especially Mike) for
all of the work can do so legitimately. (And, write it off their
taxes!)



-= Jim =-

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Tagline for Monday, April 16, 2001 at 17:35 PM:
Excited, Spock opens a box full of pointy ear tips.

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